Friends in my Heart
by Chison
Summary: A friend has been sealed behind Kingdom Hearts! Will they ever be able to see each other again? Or will darkness rise again...
1. Beyond the Door

Beyond the Door

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Marlena stood with her back to the door; her head hung low and tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry guys…" Lifting her head, she saw hundreds of heartless clawing away, and massive humanoid heartless forming in front of her. "I fight for my friends…" talking to herself, she threw herself at her foes, attacking with all of her might. Slicing through them, she swung her key blade left and right, knocking the heartless away from the pulsing ground, the humanoid heartless battered her with their fists, finally knocking her to the ground…

She opened her eyes to darkness again; she slowly rose from the ground, and saw the stained glass. "Namine?" Marlena asked the darkness, looking around, then a brilliant white light came from only a few feet away from her, trying to block the light, she put a hand over her eyes. Suddenly the light faded, and revealed Namine, "What is it Marlena?" the witch asked, she turned and said, "how hard would it be to hide some memories?" Namine put a hand to her chin and said, "well…it depends on the memory…strong ones I can only mask as another, and while weaker ones I can make people forget. Why?" Marlena hung her head low and said, "my friends will always worry about me while I'm still behind the door. Could you make them forget that I existed?" Namine looked at her, shocked, "Marlena why would you want something like that?" she gave a weak smile and said, "Its not because I don't care about my friends… But I don't want them to worry about me. Also they know that there are other worlds out there too…"

Namine stared off into the darkness and said, "I can do it, but it they might have a small memory, I can't totally hide or destroy a memory, then the heart would collapse, killing the person." Marlena nodded, understanding then said, "All right. I know this will be hard…with my friends forgetting who I am…but its for the best." Namine simply nodded her head, and said, "You know…Sora is in a chamber in Castle Oblivion, getting all of his memories back." This surprised Marlena, "What! Sora's alive?" the witch simply nodded and said, "Ansem was just trying to scare you with his talk of torturing Sora. He's safe." This came a breath of fresh air to Marlena who said, "Namine…" she turned, "could I see Sora?" the witch simply nodded, and held out her hand, which Marlena took, and suddenly they were enveloped in a brilliant white light…


	2. The Memory that won't Fade

The Memory that won't Fate

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

A teenager stands in darkness, on a grey, stone path to a massive, brilliant white door. Walking toward it, he sees the most beautiful girl in his life. She had brown hair, and dark eyes to match, and she looked like she had been crying, reaching for her through the door, she turned her back on him, the massive door started to close on him, he quickly pulled his arm out and tried to stop the door. Using all of his strength, he pulled on the door, but slowly but surely the door closed with the girl behind it.

Suddenly feeling light as air, he started to fall through the stone floor and into darkness, but felt a soft landing and a brilliant beam of light shot onto his eyes, with the darkness fleeing. He woke up covered in sweat, and looked around; he was still in his room. He had been having the same dream for the past week, and he couldn't understand what it meant. Throwing off his sheets, he grabbed a towel hanging from the door, and wandered into the bathroom for a shower.

_"Why do I keep on having this dream? Who was that girl?"_ He thought to himself as he showered, he returned to his room, dried off and dressed himself in a white shirt with a black vest, and a pair of baggy khaki pants. Wandering down the flight of stairs, he came into the kitchen, and opened a shelf, and grabbed himself a box of cereal.

Hearing a familiar jingle, he looked around for his cell phone, looking to see who it was, he answered, "let me guess. You just got showered and grabbed some cereal." It was a female voice on the other end; "You know me better than anyone." He said back to her, "I know. So Zashi, what are we going to do today?" Looking out the window, he said, "how about we go to the beach? That's something that we haven't done in a while…" There was a silence for a moment, and then her voice came back, "Sure. The beach sounds good."

Zashi hung up the phone and went back to his cereal, grabbing a bowl from another shelf, and pouring the cereal and eating. Finishing off the bowl, he got up from the table, putting the bowl into the sink, and grabbed a pair of shoes, laced them up and walked out the door; fortunately, his house was close to the beach, he wandered down the concrete path, and after about five minutes, he found the massive ocean, and looking to the horizon, where the sky and ocean met, looked like it could go on forever. "Hey Zashi!" a girl called to him, he turned around to see a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a pink shirt with a pair of short shorts. "Are going to walk around today, or just look at the ocean?" Zashi shrugged his shoulders, saying, "Its up to you Iris, we can do whatever you want."

Sitting on the bench, something triggered Zashi's memory, and he turned to Iris and said, "do you remember…" his voice trailed off, for the live of him he couldn't remember her name, "remember who?" Iris interrupted his thought, he put a hand to his forehead and said, "I can't remember… Ha. Must not have been important." Laughing it off gazing at the ocean he let his thoughts drift back to the dream he had been having…_ "No…It is important. I can't remember who she is…maybe I can find her…" _Zashi told himself as he got up from the bench, Iris looked at him and said, "Where are you going?" He looked at her and said, "I'm just going to go get a soda." Zashi started to walk down a concrete path again, however something seemed different this time. The beach was almost empty, and a cold breeze came from the ocean, picking up his pace, he hurried to the drink stand, only to find no one there. Looking around, he walked around the small cart, and off in the distance he saw that triggered more of this memory: a pair of yellow eyes morphing from the ground.


	3. Start of a Journey

Start of a Journey

A Kingdom Heats fanfic

By:

Chison

Taking a step back, he looked at the small, black creature, which hobbled up to him, and seemed to look Zashi over, then it wandered away. He blinked and started to follow the creature, but it had disappeared back into the ground, and the beach was full of life again, with people running about. Looking around, confusion washed over his face and picked up the sodas and took one back to Iris, "Thanks Zashi." She nodded, taking the soda from his hand, he sat down on the bench and stared out into the ocean again.

A few moments later, he heard a jingle, which was coming from Iris, she looked for her cell phone, and answered, talking for a while, she hung up and said, "Well…I've got to go home…My mom wants me to baby-sit my younger brother…" Iris got up from the bench, and waved Zashi off, and dashed off, headed for home; standing there for a moment, he looked around, then he also started for home. Looking carefully for the little creature, he slowly walked home, however he couldn't find it and made it to his front door.

Opening the door, he took off his shoes and shut the door behind him, looking around; he saw a sheet of paper lying on the table. Walking over, he picked up the sheet, which read: Honey, there are some pizzas in the freezer; I won't be back until late tonight! Zashi didn't mind, he just made his way to his room, and tuned on his play station and put in Kingdom Hearts. He was already almost to the end, and was controlling Sora through the darkness; after about an hour later, he saw the same place that was in his dreams: the grey stone path and the massive white door. Pausing the game, he sat and starred at the screen.

"_I've never played this game before…But…I feel like I know that place…" _Zashi put a hand to his chin, then made a connection, the monster he had saw was a heartless! He got up from his chair and paced around the room. "Kingdom Hearts is a game, and games aren't real…" He told himself, then he looked back at the paused screen and whispered, "then why do I know that place from somewhere?" Zashi looked for his cell phone and dialed Iris's number, and waited for her to pick up her phone. "Hello?" came a familiar voice to him, "hey Iris, its me Zashi…" He was going to ask her a question, but he was cut off, "Hey Zashi, can I call you back? Jordan is making a mess in the kitchen…he's playing 'chief'." "Iris I need to talk to you for a second. You've played to the end of Kingdom Hearts right?" There was a moment of silence, "No. I haven't been playing it much lately…You can't tell me any spoilers!" "Iris…do you remember a girl who used to live in the neighbor hood? I think we were good friends…" Silence again, "No…I don't know who your talking about. Its always been just us."

Zashi just held the phone in his hand, then whispered under his breath, "just us?" As he finished, Iris said, "Look Zashi I've got to go, I'll call you later ok?" With that, Iris hung up the phone, while he just stood, dumbfounded. He hung up the phone, and threw it on the bed, and turned off the game and wandered outside, locking the door behind him. Walking back to the beach, he sat on the same bench when he was with Iris, but he sighed and looked out into the ocean. _"I know I've seen that girl somewhere… I just can't remember where…"_ Zashi thought to himself as he watched the waves come into the shore, and roll back. "Hi there."

A female voice suddenly came, from the left. He turned to look, and the girl smiled and said, "Do you mind if I sit with you?" She had shimmering blonde hair and sky blue eyes. All Zashi could do was simply nod, and he came and sat down next to him; after a while she put her head on his shoulder, but then moved it away quickly, "Sorry, I didn't mean to do that…I'm just a little tired." Actually, he didn't mind, and she got up from the bench and fixed her gaze on the horizon and said, "You've seen a lot of weird stuff today huh?" Zashi looked at her and said, "How do you know about what I've seen?" She turned back to him and looked him in the eyes and said, "because I was there…" pointing to a small stone wall just a few feet away, he looked and then he got up to leave, but felt a hand in his. "Listen. I know why you keep on having the same dream. I know who that girl is…"

Stopping, he slowly turned around and said, "How do you know?" the girl lowered her head, then said, "because she didn't want you to remember her." Zashi stood stunned, _"she didn't want me to remember her? But… why?"_ He looked at her, but she turned her head to the horizon again, saying "the reason why she wanted your memories hidden was so that you wouldn't worry about her. It worked on Iris, but with what she told you, you can't forget her." Zashi walked in front of her and said, "what did she tell me?" the girl turned her head again and said, "…that she loved you." He grew quiet, and just looked off into the distance. She started to walk away, but Zashi stopped her, "Is she where you're going?" She shook her head and said, "But you'll be able to find her, and restore your memory." He swallowed the lump in his throat and said, "I want to come with you." She nodded her head and held out a hand, which he took and suddenly, they surrounded in a brilliant, white light.


	4. Awakening

Awakening

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Holding his hands in front of his eyes, Zashi was almost blinded by the light, and he slipped into unconsciousness. Waking up slowly, he looked around the room, the all the walls were pearl white, and getting from the floor, he turned his head looking for Namine, however he could not find her. Taking a few steps, he heard a strange humming noise listening intently to the noise; he followed it through the room, and past a door.

Entering into the room, he saw a boy floating in a massive, clear white flower, Zashi carefully approached the strange sight, and just as he was about to touch it, "Don't touch it." Came a female voice behind him, he quickly turned to see Namine. Zashi took a few steps backwards and studied the boy's face and slowly he recognized the boy, it was Sora. He turned to Namine and said, "What is Sora doing here? Where is Marlena?" Namine walked past him and turned her gaze to Sora, "Sora is getting his memory back, and Marlena is fighting the Organization." Zashi turned, confused "the Organization? Who are they?" Namine turned from him and said, "Its said they have a new leader, he is called DiZ, and Marlena thinks that this new personage is just Ansem under a different name."

"Sora is almost done." She said, as the flower became white like the walls, and suddenly it started to collapse, and slowly it started to bloom; flooding the room with light. After the light receded, Sora was on a bended knee, and he slowly got to his feet and looked around. "Namine, how long was I out for?" Looking at her, almost completely ignoring Zashi. "Sora you have been in the chamber for six months." Sora let the information sink in, then noticed Zashi, asking, "Who are you?" Zashi opened his mouth to speak, but Namine instead spoke, "Sora, this is Zashi." Sora's eyes narrowed and said, "You've been tainted by the darkness." With that, he stretched out his right hand, however nothing happened. "Where is the Keyblade?" Sora asked himself, looking around for it, "My friend Marlena has it now." Zashi spoke up, and Namine simply nodded, Sora looked at her and said, "I thought there were only two true Keyblades…"

Namine simply nodded, saying "There are only two Keyblades, since you were out for so long, it must have found someone else." This stunned Sora for a moment, then said, "Namine do you know what happened to Kairi and Riku?" She slowly shook her head and said, "I don't know what happened to them Sora, since you saved your world." Sora put a hand on his chin and said, "All right, Namine I've got to get back to Hollow Bastion, there must be something there on how to get rid of the Heartless for good." Namine lifted her left hand, and suddenly a card appeared in her hand, which she tossed to him, "Use that." She said with a smile, and just as quickly as she said that, Sora was gone.

Namine turned to Zashi and said, "The chamber is free now, and it wont take nearly as long for your memory to return, at the most it will take a few days." Zashi nodded and said, "Will I remember everything? Both good and…" he let his voice trail, and Namine simply nodded, "absolutely everything. Even you time under darkness." Zashi swallowed the lump in his throat and walked to the middle of the massive flower, which started to close up again, and he started to float, and fell into a deep sleep…


	5. Regaining the Memory

Regaining the Memory

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Opening his eyes, Zashi looked around, all he saw was darkness, and the floor was made of brilliant stained glass. He took a step forward, saying "hello?" Looking around, there was a small, dim light in the far distance, he started to walk toward it, when he reached the edge of the glass, steps started to form in front of him, leading to the light. Climbing one step at a time, he finally came to the light, and lifted his right had to touch it, and when he did, he was surrounded by light.

After the light receded, he found himself on the beach again, however it foggy, and he could not see, but he took a step, and then turned around at the sound of voices. There were three children standing just a few feet away, two he recognized, as himself and Iris, and another who was a little shorter than the other two then he heard them speak, "My name is Zashi," he said pointing to himself, "I'm Iris," the other girl said, "My name is Marlena, I just moved from the city." Just as Zashi was going to take a step, the scenery changed, and suddenly he was in Hollow Bastion.

"Marlena, I love Iris…even so much as to put myself through Darkness to even see her face for even a moment. I must leave you; you were just the Key carrier, one to deliver the Keyblade to the rightful owner. Nothing more." Turning around, he saw Marlena lying on the floor, and watching himself, he became angry that he was ever fooled by Anti-Sora, watching himself leave her, he helplessly watched as she started to cry, and he lowered his head, angry at himself that he did that to her. Zashi lifted his head, and took a step forward, however the scene didn't change and he started running to Marlena who was on her knees; however the closer he got to her, the further she seemed to fade away.

After a while, he stopped running and shouted, "MARLENA!" while he shouted, the scene changed again, to the door of Kingdom Hearts, standing a few feet away, he saw the entire scene play out, Marlena admitting her love for Zashi, and her being sealed behind the brilliant, white door. Tears started to stream down his face as he fell to his knees, finally knowing what his heart knew all along: The girl from his dreams was Marlena, who was sealed behind Kingdom Hearts.

Zashi's tears had stopped and he was again standing on the brilliant stained glass, he got to his feet and looked around and said, "Namine, I remember everything now: how we all met, my time under the darkness, and sealing Marlena behind the door. I remember." With that, he walked to the center of the glass and lifted his head, and a beam of light shown down on him, and he started to lift into the air, and felt his eyes start to get heavy again.

Opening his eyes again, he looked around the room, the walls and ceiling were white, and Namine was sitting at a table, almost lost in thought. He slowly got up, and said, "Namine I remember." She quickly turned around and said, "Zashi you scarred me for a moment." After hearing what he said, she got from the table and walked toward him and offered her left hand to help him up and said, "I knew you would remember on your own time, so I didn't hide your memories that deep in your heart." He got to his feet and said, "Ok. First I need to find Marlena. Then we can go back to our world, since Sora can handle the Heartless by himself." Namine placed her right hand into Zashi's left and said, "Here take this then. You'll need it to travel to the other worlds." Looking at what was in his hand, he saw it was a small drawing of a Gummi ship, and he said, "This is a card for a Gummi ship right?" Namine nodded, and she started to walk back to the long table and sat down. Zashi waved to her and said, "Thanks Namine. I hope Ill get to see you sometime." With that, he disappeared, leaving her alone. Namine had a massive grin on her face and said, "I guarantee it…" Suddenly, her skin became black and her eyes went from ice blue to a dull yellow, and it was Anti-Sora…


	6. A New Companion

A New Companion

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

A black beam emerged from the cracks in the walls of Castle Oblivion, and a figure slowly emerged from it. "…Anti-Sora, have you completed your task?" Having a crimson red mask, with black belts wrapped around, and with a single, orange eye and a massive crimson cloak, fashioned with belts and blue and yellow rectangle designs. Anti-Sora turned and said, "Yes. I have completed my objective; Sora and Zashi had no idea that the witch was not here. They totally believed my performance." The masked man looked at Anti-Sora and said, "Very well, now you deserve a name for your own…" Looking him over he uttered one word: "Rizu"

Flying through space in the Gummi ship, Zashi looked at the stars flying past him, wondering which one was his; he was taken from his daydream when the ship started to tremble, he looked out the window and saw a world that he was headed directly for, that he didn't notice. He entered into the planet, and slowly got out of the ship, which had now been reduced to only a orange half inch cube. Zashi picked up the ship and put it into his pocket and took in his surroundings: The world looked eerily liked his own. There were massive skyscrapers, and vehicles that looked like the cars that he knew from his own world. People were wondering around, looking like they didn't have a care in the whole world; Zashi wandered through the masses of people, only a few even looking at him, and when they did, it was always a glare.

Feeling uncomfortable, he wandered alone until he could find an empty bench and sat himself down, looking to the sky. _"I wonder how Iris and Marlena are holding up?" _ "Hey do you mind if I sit down here?" A female voice brought him out of these thoughts, Zashi looked to his left to see a teenage girl; having snow-white hair, and a pair of shimmering yellow eyes. Wearing a black cape that fell to the back of her legs, on her hands were a pair of white gloves that extended half her forearm, and a crimson shirt along with a pair of khaki pants, covered with pockets.

Stunned by her beauty, it took a moment for Zashi to say anything, "Yea, sure." She sat down next to him and said, "Its really weird, you're the first 'normal' person I've seen today." He turned his head and thought, _"Normal? I wonder what she means?"_ She laughed and shook her head and said, "Sorry, I just started talking, and I don't even know your name." Zashi looked at her and said, "My name is Zashi." Nodding with a smile she said, "Zashi…That's a cool name. My name is Melanie." He smiled when he saw her smile, and then asked, "What did you mean when you said, 'normal'?" Melanie hung her head and said, "It seems like very one has become a zombie. They don't say anything, and just walk around the city, like they are looking for something."

Zashi got up from the bench and said, "The Heartless might be here." Looking around, he tried to spot the little creatures, but couldn't find any; "what's a Heartless?" Melanie asked, looking at him. He turned to her and said, "They take the hearts of people, and even whole worlds." Melanie was shocked; Zashi was still looking around, and noticed that a few of the people had stopped and turned to look at them. Suddenly, their skin darkened to black, and hundreds of heartless were surrounding the pair; Melanie looked around, worried and said, "this does not look good. What are we going to do?" Looking to Zashi, who didn't have a clue but said, "I don't know…" despair hung in his voice as he looked over the mass of Heartless surrounding them. Melanie raised her hands into the air, and suddenly, a fire ball started to form in her palms, which she threw at the Heartless, creating a clear path for escape, she grabbed Zashi's hand and started to run through the Heartless.

Melanie had slowed down, Zashi looked at her and said, "why did you slow down?…" When he turned to see what she was looking at, it was Rizu, "Well, well. We have some that…" He let his voice trail as he looked at Melanie, _"I feel a strange power coming from her… Something familiar…"_ Zashi stepped in front of Melanie and said, "You are not going to get her heart." This snapped Rizu out of his thoughts and said, "Simple fool. You still have the darkness within your heart. It would be simple to bring you back to the shadows." He took a step backwards, and he felt a pain in his chest, remembering his time under the darkness, "Who are you?" Melanie asked the Heartless and he replied with a smirk, "Rizu."


	7. Secrets Within Hollow Bastion

Secrets Within Hollow Bastion

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Suddenly, they were again surrounded by hundreds of Heartless, and Zashi clutched his chest in pain, trying to keep conscious. "It seems you two are powerless against me." Rizu said, taking a step toward the pair, Melanie took a step forward, "you don't scare me." Glaring at the Heartless, Zashi looked at Melanie, and grew wide eyed, remembering Marlena, and he got to his feet and said, "Your tricks wont work on me anymore Rizu." The heartless grinned, saying, "Then I will simply destroy this world, along with you two." With that, he lifted his right hand; the skyscrapers crashed to the ground, which was being ripped apart, and the rolling ocean turned into a deep purple, and stood still, in Rizu's hand, a small, black sphere started to form, which gently floated up into the sky, and started to pull everything toward the center; growing larger.

Zashi looked at the sphere and shouted to Melanie, "We need to get out of here!" Digging into his pockets, he threw the cube just a few feet away, and they started running for the Gummi ship, soon the ground they walked on started to give way, floating up into the sky, their running slowly turned into a snail's pace as they tried to escape the billowing winds toward the sphere. Just as they reached the Gummi ship, Melanie started to float off the ground, only being anchored by Zashi, who was still trying to reach the ship. "Zashi! You can't make it with me!" Melanie shouted over the howling winds, he turned around and redoubled his efforts and shouted, "NO! I won't let you be taken by the darkness!" With that, he inched toward the Gummi ship, holding tightly to Melanie, only a few feet away, the ship started to rattle, and slowly inch toward Zashi, the ship fell into its side, and rushed toward him, knocking him off his feet, and they flew towards the sphere….

"No…I wont loose you again…" Mumbling in his sleep, Zashi woke sitting straight up, and he looked around, where ever he was, it was not the world he was just on. Getting slowly to his feet, he looked around, he was at the bottom of a massive chasm, and the water around him defied gravity, and flowed upwards toward the top. "Where am I?" Zashi wondered aloud as he was climbing the rocks, rising to a particular floating island, he noticed the small pond, with the archway, and he paused for a moment. "_This is where Riku finally met Sora, and took his key blade…"_ Looking to the sky, he saw a massive castle, with the heartless symbol built into the castle, with gears turning, and purple smoke coming out of the various shafts, "That must be Hollow Bastion." Zashi told himself, and started to climb toward the castle, when he couldn't climb any farther, he saw a zip line, and within an instant, a platform appeared right in front of him.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he steeped onto the platform, which zoomed to the entrance of the castle; lightly stepping off the platform, it vanished out of sight. Zashi inched his way slowly to the massive doors, and pushed the right one open and walked inside. Seeing the circular room with the stairs to the side, he cautiously entered the room, waiting for something—anything to happen. Holding his breathe, he wandered to the left side of the stairs and entered the door to his right, which lead him to the library. Wandering through the volumes of books, he made his to the stairs, but something had caught his attention: It was a book. Stopping, Zashi reached for the book, he hesitated for a moment, and then pulled the book from the shelf. Opening the book, he flipped through it, not really reading the words, but something crossed his eyes: it was written that in the void of the heart; light, dark and non existence would come together to open Kingdom Hearts.

Zashi held the book open for a moment and thought back to his childhood, how they had all met each other. He remembered it was a foggy day, and he wondered until he found Marlena and Iris. "_Was that us? Marlena for light, Iris for non existence, and myself for darkness…" _He held the book open in his hand for a moment, "What are you doing here?" A teenage voice came from left, making Zashi jump. Quickly turning to look, it was Sora his eyes narrowed and a scowl on his face. "I was looking for my friend, but I was attacked by Rizu…" Zashi responded, confusion washed over Sora's face, "whose Rizu?" He put away the book and turned to Sora saying, "he's the heartless version of you." This surprised Sora, who turned a quarter away from Zashi and mumbled something to himself, and started walking away, "hey have you been able to find your friends yet?" Zashi called after him, but Sora just stopped and shook his head and said, "Nope…not yet." With that, he started running out of the library. With that, Zashi walked up the stairs, and saw the hidden passage and walked through; the tunnel was dark and damp, but he kept walking, and eventually reached a room that was circular to his right, and rectangular to his left. Walking right, Zashi found another passageway, and walked into a massive room; to his left and right were six giant pillars supporting the ceiling, and as he walked further into the room, it sparked his memory and he realized he was in the Grand Hall. Suddenly, he heard some voices coming from behind him; he ran and hid behind the first pillar to his right.

"You have done very well eliminating your foes Rizu." "Thank you for giving me the opportunity…however…" Rizu let his voice trail, listening to the footsteps, Zashi moved as quietly as he could to the other side of the pillar, "something seems to be troubling you Rizu. Speak." "Well. There was a girl with the him." The footsteps stopped, "a girl?" The other man sounded angry, "don't worry, it was not the one we are looking for." Rizu commented, and the footsteps resumed, with Zashi moving to the front of the pillar, facing the door. "Very well Rizu. I will entrust you to finish the final task…"

* * *

I realize this is EXTREMELY, WAY and UTTERLY overdue. X.X I am trying my hardest to bring my series back to life, but its kinda hard with Work and School both at the same time around with Finals too. Hopefully I might have something else around Turkey time. Hopefully   



	8. The Dark Keyblade

The Dark Key blade

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Listening to the footsteps fade, Zashi slowly walked from behind the pillar, and followed the maroon carpet to a set of stairs on the sides of the walls; taking the left he slowly walked to the top. Looking around, he walked to the center of the circular room, and looked to the massive machine with the heartless symbol in the center. "I remember this room…" Zashi said out loud to himself as he turned, he remembered falling under Ansem's control. He clutched his chest when he remembered, the pain caused him to fall to one knee, taking deep breathes, he slowly got back on his feet and looked toward the heartless symbol. _"I used this portal to enter the darkness…since its not activated anymore…I wonder where it will take me?" _Thinking while he walked to the symbol, he placed a hand on the symbol, but it passed right through, like an illusion.

Walking through the portal, the passage way was dark, without any light to find his way, he used his hands to feel the wall, when he reached an opening to his left. Suddenly, a light shone from above, revealing a massive machine, with the heartless symbol positioned on top. Walking toward the machine, he looked at the levers and buttons, but something else caught his eye; climbing onto the machine, he saw a key blade. Having a black blade and a silver hilt, it seemed to shimmer in the room, carefully reaching it with his right hand, he grasped the hilt; he waited for a moment to see if there was a security protocol but there was none.

Zashi swung the blade around a few times, and the blade began to feel warm in his hand, loosening his grip, the blade disappeared, and extending his right arm, the key blade came back to him. _"This is like Marlena's key blade…" _Thinking to himself as he wandered out of the room, feeling the walls again, he ended at a dead end. "Great. Now what am I going to do?" Speaking out loud, the blade gently lifted into the air, and plunged into the wall. Zashi looked at the blade, and gripped the hilt, and turned the blade to the left; suddenly a small portal opened, with light shining in the room; without a second thought, Zashi passed through the portal.

Trying to get his bearings, Zashi looked around for something familiar, however nothing came. Passing through the spirals of colors and many colored shapes, he finally saw the exit, and started running toward it. It seemed to take forever to reach the exit, and when he passed through; he collapsed and was short of breath, _"Mental note: Learn more about portals before going through them…"_ Zashi thought to himself as he felt his eyelids become increasingly heavy.

"Hey…are you awake?" Hearing a voice, Zashi started to stir, and slowly opened his eyes, to find Melanie hovering overhead. He slowly got up, "Melanie! You didn't get caught in the vortex!" She just smiled, and sat on the bed saying, "I know! I'm lucky to have landed in Traverse Town." Zashi took his attention away from her for a second and looked around, "this is Traverse Town?" Melanie gave a simple nod, and rose from the bed and walked toward the door in front of them, "I don't know what you did, but you need to rest up. We still have to find your friends." With that, she opened the door, and shut it behind her. Looking around, the walls were decorated with Eastern dragons, and many light boxes hanging from the four corners of the room, _"I know I've just started this journey…But I don't have a clue about where Marlena is…or Iris for that matter." _Thinking to himself, Zashi tried to get up from the bed, but his body wouldn't allow him, the pain tremendous. He let his body flop down to the bed and he closed his eyes and started to dream…


	9. Oblivion

Oblivion

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Feeling the warm breeze, Zashi slowly started to open his eyes; getting adjusted to the sunset, he found himself looking to the sky. Sitting up, he took in his surroundings, it was his world, he was sitting on the concrete wall, and he noticed the bench where Marlena and Iris used to sit with him and stare out into the ocean. He got to his feet and looked to his left, and to his right, and from the corner of his eye, he saw a person standing at the water's edge. "Hello?" Zashi said, slowly walking toward the personage, he placed his right hand onto the person's shoulder and she turned around, "Zashi…You've finally found me…" It was Iris, standing in front of him, however a frown came across her face, "its too bad you didn't save me in time…" with that, her skin started to turn black, and her eyes shone a dull yellow, and morphed into a heartless, and pounced on Zashi.

Sweat dripped from his chin as Zashi sat right up, clenching his heart; looking around he realized it was only a dream, and threw the covers from his body and put his feet on the floor, and slowly rose from the bed. Just then, a knock came from the door and it slowly creaked open, revealing Melanie, "Well it looks like your awake…" Moving from the door, she walked to Zashi, who held his head from the dream, "how long was I asleep?" Reaching for a towel, Melanie handed it to Zashi, "for about two days now…I'm amazed your awake already." Taking the towel, he wiped the sweat from his head and placed the towel on the table saying, "after what happened on your world, I was sent to Hollow Bastion and I came across something…" With that, he held his right hand out, and the dark key blade appeared. "Wow…what is it?" Melanie asked, looking over the weapon with interest, "It's a key blade, it's meant to seal the world's heart…But I don't know why this one is black…"

The door slowly creaked open again, revealing a man with a vertical scar across his face, and wearing a leather jacket with a fur collar, and a necklace attached with a lion. "Your awake. Good, we need to talk to you about Marlena." Zashi quickly turned around, hearing the man's voice, his eyes lit up, "Do you know where she is?" The man just shook his head, and motioned for Zashi and Melanie to follow, and walking through a hallway, and leaving the building, the walked for about five minutes, and came to a little house with a single window. The man knocked on the door three times, and a click was heard, and the door slowly swung open, and he walked inside, followed by Zashi and Melanie. Looking around the tiny room, there were two other people inside, one had long brown hair and shimmering green eyes, with a pink dress, the other had a grey bandana, and a yellow scarf around her neck, with a green shirt and a pair of khaki shorts.

"Hello. My name is Aerith." She extended her hand to both of them, and pointed to the other girl, "that is Yuffie, and this…" pointing to the man leaning against the wall, "is Leon." Leon sat down at the table and said, "Marlena came through here a few days ago, and asked us to talk to you Zashi." This caught his attention right away, and sat across from Leon, "she told us that there might be something at Hollow Bastion and that Rizu may have something up his sleeve." Zashi spaced out for a moment, refreshing his mind when he was at Hollow Bastion and said, "I just came from Hollow Bastion…I was in the library when I met Sora…" Leon interrupted Zashi, "You've met with Sora? What did he say?" He shook his head and continued, "Nothing much, just that he was still looking for his friends…and then he left. But I did find his…" Zashi extended his right hand, and summoned the key blade. Leon's eyes grew wide as he looked at the blade and said, "That's the key blade Marlena warned us about…" Confusion swept Zashi's face "what did she tell you about this key blade?" Leon swallowed the lump in his throat and said, "Marlena was looking into a rumor that the Heartless were making their own key blade, designed to unlock worlds' hearts." After hearing this, Zashi quickly set the key blade onto the table and walked away from the table and starred out the window. Melanie slowly walked to the table and sat down, and got a good look at the weapon, and slowly reached for the key blade, touching the hilt, the weapon started to vibrate and shake across the table.

Leon and Melanie quickly moved away from the table and Zashi turned to see what was going on: Darkness shone from the weapon, a loud screeching came from the blade, everyone shut their ears due to the pain and suddenly it was over. Everyone walked to the table to see what had happened to the key blade, it had changed its shape and now it became Oblivion, the key blade Zashi had before he had his memory sealed away. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Zashi reached for the key blade, and grabbed its hilt, yet nothing happened to him. He marveled at the weapon and said, "Ansem's voice is gone…I can't feel any darkness in it." Leon looked at Melanie and said, "all you did was touch it right?" Melanie looked at Leon and gave a nod. _"All Melanie did was touch the key blade and it changed…"_ Zashi thought to himself, _"I wonder if Melanie is a Key blade wielder…"

* * *

_WOOT! I am on a writing ROLL! Anyway, now that some of my finals are over, I can spend more time with my fanfic _  
_


	10. New Worlds Abound

New Worlds Abound

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

"This is an extremely powerful weapon…" Leon said, gazing at the weapon, "Sora once wielded that key blade…" This caught Zashi's attention, "Sora had this key blade too?" Leon nodded and said, "I had to fight against Sora when he had that key blade…it's power is amazing, and now its been purified of the darkness within it…" Zashi set the weapon on the table and looked to Melanie saying, "I wonder why it changed into this one…" She simply shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know…" Leon sat down at the table looking at Zashi and Melanie, "Whatever the cause, we have a powerful weapon on our side, and it should be used wisely." He motioned for Zashi and Melanie to sit down at the table, "I need to tell you what Marlena has told us."

Perking Zashi's attention he turned to Leon who continued, "all she told us was that she is looking for DiZ." Both Zashi and Melanie became confused, "Who is DiZ?" Zashi asked, but Leon shook his head, "That's the problem, no one knows anything about him. There is not even a page about him in the library inside Hollow Bastion." Zashi put a hand to his chin in thought when Melanie spoke, "There must be someone who knows about this guy…" Leon turned to look out the window saying, "People might know about him on other worlds…" He turned back and said, "Cid came across a Gummi block for your ship, it might take you to other worlds, go to the first district and talk to him about it…" Getting up from the table, Zashi grabbed the key blade and started to the door, with Melanie right behind him, he stopped and turned, "Thanks for everything Aerith and Leon." With that, they walked out the door and shut it behind them, and started down the street.

Finding the first district, they wandered around, watching all the people running around with their errands, suddenly Melanie just stopped. Zashi turned to her, "What's wrong Melanie?" She didn't respond; he walked in front of her and snapped his fingers in her face, "Melanie!" Blinking twice, she looked at Zashi, "Sorry…I got lost in thought…" Zashi took her hand, "don't scare me like that…" Melanie nodded and they wandered, when they decided to check in the accessory shop. They opened the door and saw a man with blonde hair, wearing a white shirt and a blue pair of pants, along with a single piece of straw he was chewing on. Melanie walked to the counter and said, "Hello…" The man turned his attention from what he was doing and walked to the counter, "Hello. What—Aw. You are just kids." Zashi stood beside Melanie and said, "We are not kids. My name is Zashi and this is Melanie. We are looking for a guy named Cid." The man put a hand to his chin and said, "My name is Cid. What can I do for you?" Melanie's eyes lit up, "Leon told us that you found a Gummi block for a ship." A gleam along with a grin came from Cid, "Ah. It looks like you need my help. I love working on machines, so I'll do the work for free. Just wait here in the shop until its finished." With that, Cid climbed over the counter and walked out the door.

The shop had a fireplace in the corner and two love seats and a table in between them; Melanie sat on the right while Zashi sat on the left. "Zashi what was your world like?" Zashi put his attention to Melanie and said, "It's was a lot like yours. I lived near the ocean, and my friends and I would always get together on a little bench that over looks the sea." Melanie put her elbows on the table with her head resting on her hands. "Tell me more." She said with a smile; Zashi swallowed a lump in his throat and continued, "Well…There was not much to do in my town, so we had to entertain ourselves, by swimming, playing video games and what not…" While he had been speaking, Melanie inched toward him, and he let his voice trail off. Zashi found himself starring into Melanie's eyes; she was doing the same as well. Suddenly the door swung open, "It's all done, you guys can leave anytime." Cid's voice boomed over the silence, both of them got up from the sofas, "Thanks Cid." Zashi walked to him and held out his right hand, which Cid shook, and the pair left the shop. Walking to the massive wooden door, Zashi and Melanie grabbed the doors and pulled it open, showing the Gummi ship; Melanie walked to it and climbed on the wing and sat in the back, Zashi also climbed onto the wing and into the front seat. Looking back at her he asked, "Are you ready Melanie?" With that she gave a nod, and he pulled on a knob and pushed a lever and said, "All right! We are leaving Traverse Town." The ship flew high into the sky, and left the tiny world; while flying Zashi pushed another knob and turned around to Melanie, "uh…What happened in the shop…" He let his voice trail, she just smiled, and said "Its all right. You were doing it too." Zashi felt his cheeks start to heat up, showing that he was blushing at the comment.

Lights and sharp beeps started coming from the ship, Zashi turned to see what was wrong, and saw a few dozen other ships flying toward them. "It's the Heartless! Quick, get your seatbelt on!" Zashi shouted to Melanie, who quickly did as she was told. The ship performed a barrel roll to evade the shots from the heartless ships, and returned fire, only destroying two of the ships. _"We will never win like this…"_ Zashi thought to himself as he maneuvered the ship out of harm's way; however other heartless ships were firing, all of them hitting the Gummi ship. "Zashi…I don't feel too good…" Melanie said, holding her mouth, "What do you mean?" He turned to look at her and realized: she was motion sick. Zashi frantically looked for a bag, and knocked a lever with his foot causing the Gummi ship to accelerate, throwing Zashi over the chair and onto the floor, hitting his head. "Zashi! Wake up!" Melanie shouted, but there was no response she looked at the console, which had commands to jump into hyperspace. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light, and the Gummi ship was no where to be found…


	11. Islands of Destiny

Islands of Destiny

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

"Hello? Are you awake?" A female voice called to Zashi, he slowly opened his eyes, "Marlena?" he asked, looking into the girl's face, she stood back up and said, "No…I'm not Marlena…I've never heard of that name…" Zashi slowly got up from the sand, and looked around; he was on an island, filled with a lush rainforest and bridges connecting two other small islands. He looked at the girl who woke him up, she had dull red hair, shimmering blue eyes. She bend down and offered her hand, "Need some help?" Zashi just nodded his head and took her hand, and helped him up, she wore a white button up shirt with a light blue tie and a matching skirt. "Thanks…" he said as he was looking around, "are you looking for someone else?" Zashi turned to the girl and nodded his head, she took him by the hand and said, "I think I know who your talking about…" With that she lead him to a small wooden shack. Opening the doors, he saw Melanie lying on her back; Zashi walked and knelt next to her and looked her over to see if she was hurt, and realized that she was sleeping. The girl put her hands behind her and said, "Its probably best not to wake her yet…" Zashi looked up at the girl again and nodded his head and followed her outside of the shack, gently shutting the door behind him.

Taking a few steps toward the ocean, _"I know I've seen this place before…but where?" _He turned back to the girl and said, "Where is this?" She looked at the horizon and said, "This is Destiny Islands." Zashi grew wide-eyed. He looked down at the sand to collect his thoughts, however they wouldn't form in his head. She walked in front of him and asked, "Have you seen Sora or Riku?" Zashi simply nodded his head and the girl became excited, she started asking a million questions; he put his hands into the air and said, "The only person I've seen is Sora…" She lowered her head, "well if you come across him again…tell him that he is being missed…" Zashi nodded his head; he put out a hand and said, "My name is Zashi." She looked at the hand and then put her hand inside, saying with a smile on her face, "I'm Kairi." Zashi looked to the horizon and said, "this place is really beautiful…" she turned and said, "yes…its nice with friends."

Just as Zashi turned to talk to Kairi again, she had disappeared, he turned and looked all around and then found her walking back to him with a strange piece of fruit shaped like a star. "here Zashi, you must be hungry…" He didn't realize that his stomach was rumbling so loudly, and he gladly accepted the fruit, "that's a paopu." Zashi looked at the fruit and then started to eat it, letting it sit in his mouth for a moment, discovering the sweet taste. He licked his lips after his was finished and said, "Thanks Kairi…that was really good." She hadn't even touched hers but instead, she tore it in half as best as she could and offered half to Zashi saying, "If two people share a paopu, their destines will be intertwined…they will remain in each other's lives…" He let the piece rest in his and said, "Kairi…Shouldn't you save this for Sora?" Her head lowered, "I'm not sure if Sora is coming back at all…I figure you might lead me to him." Zashi put the piece of fruit in her hand, "I know Sora's coming back. That's what he's trying to do…"

Kairi looked at Zashi and said, "I know…but its been so long since he left…Its been three years…" he looked away, _"I didn't realize that Sora has been away so long…"_ thinking to himself, he slowly got up from the sand, looking into the horizon, "the Heartless are still around…" he said, Kairi grew wide-eyed and said, "still? Even after Sora stopped them?" Zashi simply shook his head, "no… They are still around, stealing hearts…" Suddenly a creek came over the talking, both of them turned to see, it was: Melanie.

She rubbed her eyes and said, "Zashi, where are we?" He walked toward her and said, "we are on Destiny Islands." She took a look around, seeing the island for the first time, then laid her eyes on Kairi; Melanie slowly walked toward her, "I feel like I know you from somewhere…" Kairi looked at Melanie and said, "that's so strange…I feel that way too…like a lost child hood friend…what's your name?" Melanie smiled, "my name is Melanie." Her smile was contagious; Kairi smiled also, "mines Kairi." Zashi looked at the two girls talking to each other, and started to wander away, but something grabbed a hold of his hand: it was another hand. Zashi turned to see who, it was Melanie, "Please stay with me…" He couldn't refuse, and the trio sat on the paopu tree looking into the horizon, with the girls still chattering, Zashi piped up, "Kairi…do you remember where you came from?" She paused for a moment and said, "I don't really remember…" This lead to Melanie's explaining about where she was from, which seemed to amaze Kairi.

Zashi got up from the tree, "Where are you going Zashi?" Melanie called after him, "I'm just going to look around the island…" With that, he left the girls to their talking, and found a small pond beside the wooden shack, and also a passage into the rock wall. Following the cramped space, he found himself in a small cave, looking around he saw the cave markings and the tree roots growing along the walls. What caught his attention was the massive wooden door: it was decorated with a golden outline, and did not have a handle to open. _"I wonder why a door is down here?"_ Zashi thought to himself as he put his right hand to the door, then he put an ear, but he didn't hear anything; just as he was about to leave his keyblade came to life. "What's going on?" He asked himself as he watched the keyblade shake and twitch…


	12. Revelation

Revelation

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

The shaking keyblade plunged into the door, the gold detailing around the door started to fade. Slowly a black mist started to pour from the door, watching in horror, Zashi grabbed the keyblade to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge. Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned around to see Melanie and Kairi, "The ocean has turned purple! The other parts of the island are gone! This place is falling apart!" Melanie shouted to Zashi, who tried to gather his thoughts on how to stop the keyblade from opening the door; however it was already too late as the last few inches of gold around the door faded. Suddenly the burst open, and the dark mist covered the tiny cave, "Melanie! Kairi! Where are you?" Zashi shouted over the darkness, but he heard nothing he took a few steps and used his arms as guides, however he couldn't feel the cave wall, and something started to crawl up his legs. Flailing his arms about, he felt the hand of someone else, and grasped onto it, and pulled himself free; he couldn't see who it was, "Zashi are you all right?" Melanie's voice came over the darkness; he looked around to see where her voice was coming from, but his eyes failed him.

"Don't worry, I've got Kairi with me too." Her voice came again, and he felt a slight tug on his arm and he started walking. "Where are we going!" Zashi shouted, trying to get his voice across the darkness, but there was no response and he kept on walking. Suddenly he couldn't feel Melanie's hand anymore, he stopped dead in his tracks and looked around, "Melanie! Kairi!" Zashi shouted into the abyss, he listened for a response but all he could hear was a cracking noise; suddenly the floor gave way, making Zashi tumble through the darkness. Falling for what seemed like forever, he landed softly on his feet and looked around: Darkness was still all he could see, he took a small step forward, when the floor began to shine with many different colors, however they formed an image. It was Marlena surrounded by both Heartless and Unknown.

Zashi tried to make sense of the stained glass picture on the floor. _"Does this mean that both the Heartless and the Unknown are working to stop Marlena?" _Just as he had finished his thought, there came a voice that echoed throughout the darkness, "You are the ones to seal the door." He looked around for the source of the voice, but could not find one, "seal the door? You mean Kingdom Hearts?" Zashi asked the darkness, but he received no response, but then pondered what it had said, _"you are the ones…" _ he thought to himself then the voice echoed again, "Light, darkness and non-existence are required to seal the door." Just as Zashi was working on the words that the voice had said, he saw a flight of stairs leading upward to another platform. Walking up the stairs, he found another stained glass floor with an image, it was Iris being surrounded with Heartless and Keyblades. Zashi starred at the floor for a long time, and he put a hand to his chin, _"…I am dark…Marlena is light…and Iris is Unknown…"_ Finishing the thought, a brilliant light took him over, and he lost conscience.

"ZASHI! Wake up!" Melanie screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to wake him up, when he suddenly flashed his eyes open. He put a hand to his head and said, "Ow…How long have I been out?" Melanie looked up at Kairi, who gave a shrug, then turned to Zashi, "I don't know…but we have found a place to crash for the night." Struggling to his feet he leaned on Melanie, they walked to a building just on the other side of the plaza, they passed through the doors and into their rooms. Melanie lay Zashi down on a bed, "This is your room. You can't share with Kairi and me." Since Zashi didn't have a problem, he simply nodded his head and climbed further onto his bed and watched Melanie walk out of his room.

Sleep didn't come easy since Zashi saw the stained glass images of his friends. _"What does that mean for me?"_ he thought intently, trying to answer his question, however no answer came. Hearing a creaking noise come from his door, he looked over to see Melanie, who walked to his bed and said, "I can't sleep since what happened to us on Destiny Islands…" Zashi looked at Melanie, "I can't sleep either…" she crawled onto the bed with him, barely inches from his face, when they heard a scream coming from the other room!

Melanie jumped off the bed and ran toward the room, and forcefully opened the door, to find Kairi standing a few feet away, pointing to a red and blue mound on the floor, which was moving. "Stand back Kairi!" Melanie shouted, and reached into her coat, and found a small cylinder, which extended by a yard in both directions. The figure lifted his face, revealing his blonde hair and ice blue eyes, filled with deep cuts; his red cloak was torn to ribbons, and his blue clothing was turning red from the blood. "I…need…" the man tried to speak, "I need…to speak with Zashi…" Suddenly, the man fell back on the floor…


	13. Twilight Town

Twilight Town

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Seeing the man faint, Melanie struggled to put the man into a bed, and try to bandage his wounds, telling Kairi to fetch various items to help with the recovery. She tore off his shirt, revealing many scars, and open wounds that she started to treat the instant she saw them; working much later into the night than she thought, he finally sat beside the bed, "I'll just relax my eyes for just a few minutes…" However within two minutes, she was fast asleep, with Kairi in the other bed on the other side of the room.

When morning came, Zashi opened his eyes, "I wonder what that shriek was last night…" Slowly getting from his bed, he wandered down the hall, towards the girls' room and slowly opened the door. Seeing Melanie at the side of the bed made Zashi crack a smile, then he looked at the man in the bed; he walked closer, trying not to wake Melanie, and he starred at the man then it came to him: it was Cloud! "No! Sora don't go…" Kairi shouted in her sleep, which made the hair on Zashi's neck stand on end, he looked over at her, but she had drifted back to sleep, suddenly Cloud stirred, and slowly opened his eyes.

"Zashi…I've been looking for you." Cloud, said with a cough, which woke Melanie from her slumber. "Marlena has a message for you…" This perked Zashi's interest, "She says that DiZ is not Ansem…" this confused him, but Cloud went on, "Marlena thinks that Ansem is still alive…either with a body or within another person's heart." Zashi put a hand to his chin, still confused, "If DiZ is not Ansem…then that means that Rizu is controlling the heartless by himself…" Cloud climbed further in his bed, "Rizu does not have that much power…he is merely a Heartless." Melanie finally stood up from the floor, "Well it looks like your finally awake…" Cloud looked at her, and down at his bandages, "Thank you for taking care of me while I was injured…" Zashi looked over Cloud, seeing the multitude of bandages, "Cloud…how did you get beat up so badly?" He rearranged himself in the bed, "I have been battling Sephiroth…no matter how hard we try…it seems we are not destined to destroy each other." Melanie's eyes grew wide as she spoke, "You've been fighting another person this whole time?" Cloud shook his head, "there was a day or two of peace, when Marlena found me…" then he turned and looked out the window to the sky.

Suddenly Kairi sat straight up in her bed, "NO SORA! DON'T LEAVE ME!" Everyone was scarred at the sudden outburst, Melanie walked over to her and calmed her down, "don't worry…we will find Sora…" Kairi simply nodded her head and whispered something to Melanie, who turned to the guys, "You two need to leave the room for a second, we are going to get changed." Zashi shrugged his shoulders and helped Cloud from the bed and wandered into his room; putting Cloud back onto his bed. "Who are those girls your traveling with?" he asked in concern, Zashi looked at him oddly, but remembered that he had not introduced them yet, "Well the one with red hair is Kairi, a friend of Sora's, and the other girl her name is Melanie…" Cloud seemed to fall deep into thought, then motioned Zashi closer, "I don't trust Melanie. She gives off an aura I cannot explain…" he looked at Cloud with confusion, "She's the one that bandaged you…" A worried look came over his face, "I still don't trust her…Make sure to keep an eye on her Zashi…" He had thought of his time he spent with Melanie: she was not afraid of the Heartless, and was able to see everyone in Darkness.

Questions ran through Zashi's mind when suddenly the door creaked open, revealing Melanie, "we're ready to go…" Zashi looked back at her and nodded his head and quickly showered and changed back into his clothes. He waved to Cloud, still bedridden, and wandered out of the inn looking for Melanie and Kairi. "Hey Zashi!" Melanie called out, waving her hand, he walked toward them, "do you know where we are?" Zashi took a moment to look around; the buildings were made of stone, the roofs from wood, and the ground was covered in cobblestone. Looking to the sky, it shone with many different shades of yellow and orange, indicating that the sun was just hanging on the horizon. He took a few steps away from the girls, "I think this is Twilight Town…" he said to himself, just loud enough for the girls to hear him; looking toward the horizon, he found a mansion, guarded by an iron gate. _"Something feels familiar seeing that house…"_ Just then, a laugh came over the silence, everyone turned their heads, trying to find the source, but he suddenly appeared in front of Zashi: it was Rizu. "It seems you have found the portal to darkness…" he said with a grin on his face, and he focused his attention to Melanie, "I know what resides inside your heart…" Zashi turned back to Melanie, who had a frightened look, _"Does Rizu know something that I don't? What if Cloud is right?"_


	14. Kidnapped!

Kidnapped!

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Zashi took his attention away from Melanie for a second; Heartless had begun to crawl out of the shadows and cracks in between the stones of the buildings: moving closer to Melanie. "They follow their leader…" Rizu said with a smirk, which scarred Zashi, "Melanie, are you ready to fight?" He whispered, and turned to see her nod, and slowly raise her hands into the air and mumble a phrase, and lightning rained down from above, destroying a good number of Heartless, but for everyone destroyed, two would take its place. Zashi put out his hand and summoned Oblivion and threw himself towards the Heartless, he found he was making quick work of them, Melanie also drew her weapon and started attacking the Heartless head on. After a few minutes, they had fallen back to back, fending off the Heartless, "how are you holding up Melanie?" Zashi asked, turning his head to see her reaction, she looked back at him, "I'm ready for more if you are…" With that, she held out her hand and let loose a fire ball, blasting through a shadow, and split attacking two others.

Lifting his keyblade into the air, Zashi threw it the Heartless, cutting through them like butter, but then it clanged against a sword; he turned to see what had deflected his keyblade. It was a Heartless with a sword and a pair of faded purple wings, summoning Oblivion back to him, Zashi rushed towards the different versions of Heartless, clanging echoed through the tiny town. After he had defeated that one, three others appeared and rushed toward him, knocking him back five feet, tumbling head over heels. Zashi slowly got up and rubbed the back of his head and saw Melanie, transfixed by the battling, her yellow eyes seemed to faintly glow, but Zashi dismissed it, and jumped back into the fray.

Rizu calmly watched the battle from afar, and then noticed Melanie, _"I knew it! She has part of the Heart!"_ He thought to himself as he watched her, he leapt from the rooftop he was standing on, and fell right into the battle, and formed a replica of Sora's keyblade and started to walk toward Zashi. Seeing Rizu walk toward him, the other Heartless slowly moved out of the way, as if making room for him. Rizu grinned, then Zashi ran toward him, keyblade first; his attack was blocked and Rizu returned one of his own, hitting Zashi on the back, making him fall to his knees. "It looks like you are inferior to me…" Rizu chuckled, then Zashi swung, his attack being deflected by Rizu, but did not expect for him to strike low, and he was swept to his feet. Falling flat on his back, Rizu simply used the darkness and molded into the ground and disappeared, looking around, Zashi didn't anticipate that Rizu would appear behind him, suddenly feeling a sharp pain in the back of his head, Zashi fell to the ground; trying to keep conscience. "What a fool to think you alone could conquer the darkness…" Rizu simply said as he slowly walked toward Melanie, who hadn't even noticed that Rizu had joined the battle.

Getting up slowly, Zashi lifted his keyblade into the air, and threw it at Rizu, who turned in time to block it with his weapon; however it passed right through and struck a solid blow to his head. Rizu took a few steps backwards, lowering his head, "Just for that…" Rizu responded lifting his head, revealing blood red eyes, "YOU DESERVE TO BE UTTERLY DESTROYED!" Disappearing from view, Zashi looked around, but suddenly felt hundreds of strikes all over his body, from his stomach to his head, and fell to the floor. "Like I said before…you are inferior…" Rizu growled as he walked toward Melanie, who had finally noticed what had happened to Zashi.

"ZASHI!" Melanie shouted, however he did not hear her, Rizu had finally made his way across the battle field to her. "What did you do to my friend?" Melanie shouted, but that made Rizu shake his head, "He is inferior…he can never defeat the darkness by himself…" This made Melanie angry as she held up two open palms and thick shards of ice shot from her hands; hitting Rizu, who took a few steps backwards from the magic. Rizu shook his head in disappointment, and raised a hand, and snapped his fingers, and suddenly there were six more of the Heartless with swords, who grabbed a hold of Melanie's arms and legs. "See…Its like this: You have something I want…" Rizu grinned, looking into her shimmering yellow eyes. Suddenly there was a cough, and Zashi looked up to see Melanie being held by Heartless and Rizu standing next to them. "Some hero you are…You can't even protect the ones you care about…" Rizu said with a low chuckle, Zashi tried to stand to his words, but his body would not obey, and laid on the ground. "Well your friend here has a very special heart…" Rizu said, turning to Melanie, who tried to struggle, but the Heartless' made their grip tighter.

A black portal appeared behind Rizu, "The next time you see your friend…let's just say…She wont be feeling like herself…" With that, the Heartless carried Melanie through the portal followed by Rizu, while his laughter echoed throughout the battle field…


	15. Darkness Rising

Darkness Rising

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Opening her eyes slowly, Melanie looked around the room; trying to move her body, however it was tightly flashed down with black chains. "Don't hurt yourself. You have something of value…" Came a voice to her left, she turned to see, but the inky darkness of the room hindered her vision. "Who's there?" Melanie called out to the room, but there was no answer. _"How did I get myself into this mess in the first place?" _Her mind went racing, trying to find an answer, then it suddenly hit her: Rizu kidnapped her. Frantically she looked around for something—anything to help her escape; she tried to move her hands, they were chained down at the wrists, and then tried her feet, however they too were chained, right at the ankle. She took a deep sigh then tried to make outlines of the objects on the walls, however the room was too dark, and tried to break free of the chains.

After about 10 minutes, she was exhausted. "It wont work…" A voice seemed to echo over the darkness; suddenly the room was granted light, and Melanie took a look around, trying to get her bearings. The table, which she was chained to, sat inside a massive room, with a heart shaped portal to her left, and machines and computers to her right. Rizu was standing in front of a machine with his back turned to her, flipping knobs and pulling switches; "Why did you kidnap me?" Melanie asked, Rizu stopped for a moment and turned, "Like I said, you have something of value…" She frantically shook her head, "I don't have anything of value!" Rizu gave a hearty laugh, "You may not have anything of value, but your heart does." Melanie was confused, "my heart?" Rizu simply went back to the machine, pulling a knob, he turned around to see the results, and sure enough; a glass sphere was attached from black, metal support beams and it lowered closer to Melanie.

"What is that thing?" she asked, swallowing the lump in her throat, Rizu looked at her, then back at the sphere, "It's a device to take the heart from inside a body and examine it." A bead of sweat ran down Melanie's face as a whirling sound started from up above her, then it slowly made its way down to the glass sphere. Rizu had been looking over the machine, nodding and saying something to himself, then he placed his hand on a lever, "Don't worry…this wont hurt you…much." With that, he threw the switch downward.

Melanie's eyes grew large as she felt suddenly cold, her hands and feet were the first to go numb, then it followed up her arms, through her legs and eventually reached her torso; however she felt two different pulses, and watched her heart part from her body and gently float to the glass sphere. Rizu slowly approached the sphere containing Melanie's heart and started to look it over; and something caught his eye: it was a black spot on her heart. _"So the experiment was a success! Ansem is a genius!"_ Rizu thought to himself as he found himself starring at the heart, and quickly lifted the switch, setting Melanie's heart back into her body. Now Rizu had a fixed grin on his face from what he had seen; "You don't realize what you are…" He said, trying to make her feel uncomfortable, which it did instantly. "What I am?" She asked, trying to get an answer from Rizu, however he had gone back to the machines and was flipping through some sheets of paper. "Ansem was a genius…" This perked Melanie's interest hearing that name, "Ansem…he sounds familiar…" Rizu stopped his rummaging through the papers. "He should…he is the one…" he let his voice trail, _"Its best not to tell her that she was 'created.'"_ Rizu thought to himself, cutting his train of thought, however Melanie's voice echoed throughout the room, "Why are you so interested in my heart?" He stopped again, and turned to her, "You have Darkness in your heart… Not just a little bit like other people. Enough to rule over the Heartless, and I want that power." Fear swept over Melanie, _"why do I have darkness in my heart?"_ She thought to herself, trying to answer her question, but Rizu spoke softly to a whisper, "He doesn't have notes on how to undo a seal on ones heart… He found the Heartless…shouldn't he have notes on it?" He kept looking through papers, and pacing back and fourth between machines, looking into various books the evil philosopher had written.

Rizu suddenly turned from the machines he was working with, and looked into the heart shaped portal; then back to Melanie. The table suddenly faded away, leaving her in chains, lying on the ground; suddenly two large heartless appeared, with heart shaped holes for their torso, and they picked her up by her hands and feet, and carried her to the portal. "Wait! What are you doing?" Melanie shouted at the top of her lungs, Rizu simply grinned, "this will be your holding cell until I can find Ansem's notes on what I need…" with that, the pair of heartless threw her through the portal. Landing on the other side, Melanie noticed that the chains had come off, and ran toward the portal, but an invisible force kept her from escaping, he banged on the barrier with her fists, but it was no use. She slumped to the floor and took in her surroundings, which were many brilliant, flowing colors into a black keyhole; getting up from the floor, Melanie inched her way to the keyhole, hoping to find an escape, but nothing she did made the hole react.

Slumping down to the floor again, she held her knees close to her torso and began to cry, "Zashi…where are you?"

* * *

Okies...I know this is a little late. Ive started Spring college classes so expect a slight slow down from here on out...since its kind of hard to keep up with school and fanfic writing too...  



	16. A Slight Detour

A Slight Detour

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Struggling for breath, Zashi slowly opened his eyes to find himself still on the ground, in the battle field where Rizu had kidnapped Melanie. Pushing himself from the ground, he rolled over onto his back, and starred into the twilight sky; with much effort on his part, Zashi managed to pull himself to a sitting position. His body ached, he held his head, still dizzy from sitting up; and he tried to get to his own feet, but they would not respond, and he tumbled back down onto his face. _"I wonder what Marlena would say if she saw me like this…"_ He thought to himself about his predicament, but suddenly he heard a familiar voice, "Zashi! Are you all right?" Kairi turned him over, "I saw the fight and didn't do anything at all…I feel so useless…" He closed his eyes and shook his head, "I feel useless all the time…like right now…" Kairi helped Zashi up, when they heard another voice from a few feet away, "it looks like your hurt Zashi." They turned to see Cloud, who was using his sword as a crutch, standing over them, "Kairi. Stand back, I'm going to use some magic." She moved a few feet away, Cloud closed his eyes and muttered a few words, and suddenly a green light enveloped Zashi, his wounds and pains melted away in the light.

Standing to his feet, Zashi looked at Cloud, to thank him, but he had other things on his mind, "where is Melanie?" he hung his head low and sighed, "Rizu kidnapped Melanie." Cloud put a hand to his chin in thought, but was interrupted by Kairi, "We should get back to the room, its getting chilly…" holding her arms, she started to wander back to the hotel, with Cloud and Zashi following behind her. Opening the door, Cloud sat down on the bed, and rested his sword against the wall, Kairi took a blanket and wrapped it around herself, and Zashi took a chair to sit on. "All right. We know Rizu kidnapped Melanie for a reason…the only question is why?" Cloud asked Zashi, who shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea…" Zashi and Cloud were in deep thought, "Well…I think Rizu would take her to Hollow Bastion." Zashi spoke, catching Cloud's attention, "When I journeyed with Marlena, there was a portal from the mansion to Hollow Bastion…I wonder if its still active…"

The two of them got up to leave, "Wait…what will I do?" Kairi asked softly, they looked at each other, and then Zashi walked to her and held her hands. "The best thing…I guess is for you to stay here and wait for Sora…" she shook her head, "I don't want to be useless anymore!" Zashi looked back at Cloud, who didn't say anything. "Kairi…I know its hard, but it's the best thing to do right now…" he spoke in a soft tone, and reached behind his neck and undid his necklace and placed it in her hand. "I'll be back for this. You can count on it…" Kairi jumped from the chair and hugged Zashi, with tears streaming down her face; "Thank you…All that Sora left me was an empty promise…Now I have something to hold on to…Thanks." She whispered, and let Zashi go, and waved goodbye to Cloud, and they left the building.

Walking in silence, they reached the iron grates of the mansion, looming over them. Cloud pushed the gate, and let Zashi lead to the door; he grasped the handle, "Zashi. The last time Marlena and myself went through this mansion, we had to deal with lots of illusions. Be on your guard." He nodded his head, and turned the handle, and opened the door; slowly walking inside, the air was stale, and the walls seeped with water running down them. The path split into two ways: left and right, Zashi pointed to the right path, and Cloud simply nodded his head and followed behind him; after ten minutes of walking, they came to a dead end. "Looks like I choose the wrong way…" Zashi quietly said to himself, but noticed something molding from the wall, soon Cloud noticed too, and it finally molded into a door handle. "I wonder if this is an illusion…" Cloud said aloud, and Zashi slowly reached for the handle, "well…it's a door handle, it must open a door right?" he asked, and Cloud simply nodded, and Zashi turned the handle, revealing a blinding light, which took them over, and they tumbled out of another door.

Zashi was the first to get up from floor, opening his eyes he looked around. "Cloud…I don't think we are in Hollow Bastion…" Looking at the massive walls, they had a pattern of clouds and blue sky that wrapped around the whole room. Turning to his right he saw a plastic loop, and various toy chests and a closet; in front of him was a massive door, which seemed to tower over him, and to his left, there was a giant chest, and a window that seemed simply out of his reach. Turning to look behind him, there was a massive bed, and they were only tall enough to see under the bed frame. Cloud got up and rubbed the back of his hair, when his face went pale, "my hair…" he started, Zashi turned around to see what he was talking about, but was too stunned to speak, "my hair is made out of plastic…" Cloud finally finished his sentence…

* * *

KUDOS to you if you can guess the World they have landed in!  



	17. Transformed

Transformed

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

All Zashi could do was stare. Cloud had transformed, his hair was made from a single piece of plastic, his claw on his arm was also made of plastic, and his clothes had changed into simple sheets of cloth sewed together. Pulling his sword, Cloud inspected it closely, finding also that his sword was made from plastic, "What happened?" He asked himself, still in shock, Zashi quickly looked at his hands to see if something had happened to him; sure enough something had. Looking at his hands, the joints were now pieces of plastic fitted together, and his clothes were also simple pieces of cotton.

"Hey!" A male voice shouted filling the room, when suddenly a figure jumped down from the bed; having a brown cowboy hat, brown eyes and a yellow plaid shirt with blue jeans. "I don't know where you guys came from, but you are not welcome in Andy's room!" he shouted, Zashi rose his hands, "What did we do?" Cloud narrowed his eyes to the cowboy, but suddenly another voice rang out, "Woody! For Pete's sake! You ought to be ashamed!"

Looking in the direction of the voice, there was a personage, she picked up a small racecar and used it as a skateboard and rode the plastic circle, and leapt from the car, landing close to the cowboy. She had a brown cowboy hat with flaming red hair, and mesmerizing blue eyes; wearing a white shirt with a pair of blue jeans. "Jesse! We don't know if they helped take Buzz!" Woody shouted, with his arms flailing about, "Well we won't know if we don't ask them who they are!" the girl responded, then turned to Zashi and Cloud, "Sorry 'bout Woody, he's been a little antsy since our friend was taken way…Who are you two?" Zashi sighed relief, "my name is Zashi," pointing to Cloud, "and that's Cloud." She looked at the two of them, back and fourth, "You have some weird names for toys…" Cloud shook his hand, "We are not toys…its difficult to explain…" The girl gave a hearty laugh, "you guys are pretty funny! My name is Jesse," then pointing to the cowboy, "and the grumpy one is Woody." Woody had folded his arms and turned away, muttering something about kidnapping.

Jesse put her fingers to her hand and whistled, and suddenly there were multitudes of toys coming out of the woodwork of the room. "Hey Jesse, who are these guys? They on't look like ordinary toys…" A Potato Head spoke, holding the hand of a Mrs. Potato Head, Zashi and Cloud watched in awe at all the toys. Everything from Slinky dogs, to army men, they approached the pair cautiously, seeing if they would try anything. "Hey everyone, these guys say they are not toys!" Jesse shouted at the top of her lungs, making sure everyone heard her, and they all erupted into laughter. "But its true…" Zashi said, but no one heard them, and he slowly summoned his keyblade. He looked at his keyblade, it had reverted back to just the black version of the Kingdom key, rather than Oblivion; slowly the toys had halted their laughter, seeing Zashi with his keyblade. "Wow…its still metal…" he said to himself, handing the keyblade in his plastic fingers; Woody had finally turned around to see the commotion and saw Zashi with his keyblade in hand.

"Maybe we can help you find your friend while we are here…" Zashi said, looking at the toys for a response, and suddenly Woody ran toward them, "You are saying you'll help? That's great!" He surprised Zashi, but the cowboy pointed to an etch-a-sketch and shouted, "Etch, draw those things that took Buzz!" Within an instant, there was a rough picture of a Heartless! Cloud and Zashi stood stunned, when Zashi finally spoke, "That's a Heartless…" Everyone looked at him confused, and then Jesse asked, "Well what in blazes is a Heartless anyway?" Zashi swallowed a lump in his throat, "they attack people and take their hearts…" Everyone gasped, and some scurried away, "but its weird they would attack toys though…" Zashi continued, puzzled that the Heartless would attack toys. "Maybe its because all of you move without a heart…" Cloud stated, looking around the room, examining each toy, "all right then," Jesse started, "We know who took Buzz…the only question is where did they take them?"

All the toys started to pitch their thoughts on where exactly Buzz had been taken, they ranged from downstairs in the garage, to a mini-van, and even to an airport. Cloud opened his mouth to make a suggestion, but then realized there was no actual way to get to the Underworld from the bedroom, and slowly shut his mouth. Zashi put a hand to his chin and thought out loud, "normally the Heartless attack on sight, they don't kidnap…unless someone is controlling them…" Cloud gave a simple nod, and they began to think of a person who had the power to control the heartless when Woody spoke up, "Ya know…there is that Emperor Zurg fellow…"

This caught Zashi's attention, "Emperor…what?" Woody sighed, "Emperor Zurg is Buzz's sworn enemy or something…" This also caught Cloud's attention, "do you know where Zurg would be?" The toys shook their heads, and Zashi started to let his eyes wander around the room, and eventually found the windowsill, where he saw two figures: A robot with its left arm fitted with three barrels, and clad in purple with red glowing eyes, and the other figure had a hat that made a pair of black horns, her skin was as pale as a full moon, and she had yellow eyes and a massive flowing black cloak, along with a staff with a green orb at the tip.

Zashi was frozen with fear, he knew one of the figures immediately, it was Maleficent…


	18. Toy's View

Toys at Heart

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Maleficent turned her head slightly to the other person standing beside her, "Do not let their appearance fool you… if you are not careful, they will destroy you." She said coldly, turning to look at Zashi, wielding the keyblade, _"I did not think a dark heart could wield the keyblade…what is this?" _she thought, looking at the black keyblade, she cracked a wicked smile, "that boy does not know the power contained in that weapon…" Maleficent whispered to herself, the other turned to listen, but she would not repeat herself.

Still starring at Maleficent, Zashi tried to make words form, but they would not come, "Zashi, quit gawking at whatever you are looking at and start thinking!" Cloud shouted, trying to get his attention, but slowly Zashi uttered, "Maleficent…" A bead of sweat ran down Cloud's face at the mention of her name and he slowly turned to look at the windowsill, and sure enough, she was standing beside another toy. Jesse and Woody also took notice of Maleficent and the other toy standing on the windowsill, when Woody pointed and shouted, "That's Emperor Zurg!" They all looked at him from the outburst, but when they looked at the windowsill, the pair was gone; Woody was the first to start climbing on the bed sheets and toward the desk, and jumped onto the windowsill. Everyone soon followed after him, while Woody was already looking out the window for them, "Wow…I've never seen a toy move that fast…or at all for that matter…well… Before this I mean…" Zashi was rambling when they finally reached Woody.

"Darn! They vanished right before us!" Woody banged his fist on the window, making a light noise, "I had no idea Maleficent was still alive…I thought she was banished to the Underworld…" Cloud stated in disbelief, but then revelation dawned on Zashi, and put a fist into his open hand, "Oh yeah…I forgot about all that stuff…" Everyone turned to listen to Zashi, "What do you mean 'stuff'?" Cloud asked, Zashi lowered his head, gathering his thoughts, "Well…In my world, Kingdom Hearts was a video game…" Cloud raised a brow, "a video game?" Zashi nodded, "Yea…it was a really cool game, but that's not the point; the point is they made all kinds of toys to go along with it…" Cloud starred out the window, "You're saying that they made toys of the main characters from the game? And now they are alive here?" Zashi nodded his head and took another look at his hands, "I never thought in my wildest dreams I would be a toy…"

Turning from Zashi, Cloud focused his attention to Woody and Jesse, who were intently looking out the window. "Do you know of a place where they would go?" They both looked at Cloud, and shook their heads, but then Woody got an idea, "well Emperor Zurg came from a toy store about a days walk from here." Cloud nodded, "that sounds like a good idea, we should check the toy store first…" turning to Zashi, who was still fascinated with being a toy, but his hands down at this side, and nodded his head, "Yea we need to deal with Maleficent too…"

They tried to open the window to sneak down, but it was no use, none of them were strong enough to open it, but Woody put his hands to his lips and whistled. Within moments, a little brown Labrador dog bounded into the room, looking in the direction of the sound. "Good boy Buster! Now you need to drop us outside all right?" Woody asked the dog, who nodded understanding him. Zashi dropped his jaw, looking at the dog, "wow…" he walked to Buster and started feeling his wet nose, which seemed to drench his hand, shaking the liquid from his hand, he crawled up and sat on Buster's back, and said to Cloud, "Come on Cloud! We are going to ride on a dog!" Cloud looked at the dog and shrugged his shoulders, "well…as long as it does not have an extra pair of heads…" Zashi helped him onto the dog, and they trotted down the stairs, with Woody being the look out for the people, and when it was clear, Buster walked straight for the doggie door, and pushed through, revealing the afternoon sun. The group got off, and Woody scratched behind Buster's ear, "Who's a good boy? That's right, you are!" he said and the dog responded by giving Woody a big kiss, leaving him full of slobber.


	19. Crossing

Crossing

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Once they had started down the sidewalk, Zashi kept on looking around at the other things that seemed normal, but since they had been transformed into toys, everything had become brand new. "Wow…" "Look at that…" Zashi pointed to nearly everything in his view, "Zashi… if you were the original size, you wouldn't be surprised…" Cloud echoed to Zashi's fascination with the objects around him. He became quiet and folded his arms and produced a scowl on his face, muttering about ruining the experience. Cloud also took the time to observe his surroundings, "_his world is amazing…" _ he thought to himself, taking note of the immensely tall trees, and the towering blades of grass.

Just then, Jesse and Woody stopped dead in their tracks. Jesse first pointed to the obstacles in their way, "are those the Heartless?" Finishing her sentence, Cloud moved in front of Woody, and Zashi summoned his keyblade to his side, and moved in front of Jesse. The Heartless had been changed; their skin was replaced by a simple sheet of black fabric, stuffed with cotton, and sewn at the joints. Their eyes, were simply a yellow button sewn to their heads. Cloud pulled out his sword, "It looks like this world even affects the Heartless…" with that, he lunged toward them, slicing them to pieces, within an instant, Zashi joined the fray, swinging his keyblade, making them disappear one by one. After the last one had been taken care of, Woody casually walked toward Zashi and Cloud, pulling on his belt, "Well…those guys weren't so tough…" Cloud just looked at Woody, "there will be more…" and started walking along the sidewalk, Jesse and Woody stood beside Zashi, pointing to Cloud, "Is he always like that?" He looked at them and gave a nod.

Realizing he didn't know the way, Cloud stopped in his footsteps, "Your world is in danger, we need you to lead the way." Covering up his mistake, he waited for Woody Jesse to pass by, and resumed following their lead. After what seemed like hours, they finally came to a busy intersection; cars rushing by carrying a strong gust of wind with them. Zashi looked up and down the street, "How are we going to cross it?" Everyone looked for a way to safely cross the street; but there was nothing. Jesse put her arms on her waist, "Woody, didn't Buzz say something about traffic cones he used to cross it?" Woody put a hand to his chin in thought, "Yea…I remember Buzz saying something like that." Cloud looked around, looking for something—anything to help them cross the street in one piece. Zashi looked at the towering piece of steel looming above their heads, and noticed a button: Push to cross street. "HEY!" Zashi shouted at the top of his lungs, pointing to the button. "What are you shouting at?" Cloud asked, turning to see what the commotion was about, then he saw the button.

Suddenly, their hopes died: the button was far out of their reach. Woody took his attention from the button, "Well…now what?" Cloud took a step forward, "Zashi. Hold this." He took his sword off his back and handed it to Zashi, making him almost fall over from the sheer weight of the blade. Within an instant, there were bolts of electricity racing around Cloud's body, and his eyes began to glow, and he shot into the sky like a rocket, and pushed the button, then began to gently fall to the ground. When Cloud finally landed on solid ground, he fell to one knee, and was breathing heavily, "Cloud…how did you do THAT?" Zashi shouted, looking at him, then to the button, and back to him. "Its nothing…its using Magic along with my strength." Zashi watched the display across the street, waiting for it to turn green; suddenly the red sign changed into a white 'WALK' sign.

"COME ON GUYS!" Zashi shouted, Jesse ran ahead, and the boys carried Cloud across the street, since he couldn't run the distance. Flopping to the pavement on the other side, the group sat against the support for the stoplight, "That was some quick thinkin' Zashi." Jesse said with a smile on her face. He just smiled, and looked around at their new destination, and then pointed to a building, "Is that the toy store?" The building was shaped like a barn, red paint covered the building and where the roof ended, it was painted with white, and a massive neon light hung above a pair of sliding doors: Al's Toy Barn.


	20. Friends in Plastic

Friends behind Plastic

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Woody gave a nod, "yep that's the place…" getting up from the ground, he turned to help Jesse to her feet, while Zashi helped Cloud. They made their way slowly to the giant set of sliding doors, and walked right to the door, but it would not open. "Huh?" Zashi asked in confusion, "why won't the door open?" he looked around, but there was no other way to open the door, but noticed the black rubber mat just behind them. "I think the door opens when we step on the mat…" Jesse wondered aloud, and stepped onto it, but the door did not open. Slowly they all moved to the mat, but the door still wouldn't open, "maybe we have to jump at the same time?" Cloud asked looking at everyone, "all right on three…" they got ready, "one…two…three!" they jumped as high as they could into the air and landed, suddenly the doors came to life and opened.

Running past the doors, they saw isles and isles of toys and boxes sitting on shelves. "How are we going to find Buzz in all of this…" Woody distressed for a moment, but Zashi put a hand on his shoulder, "don't worry, we will find him." Woody gave a nod; "all right we should probably split and go down the isles by ourselves to cover more ground." Everyone agreed, and they made their way down their own isle. Zashi took the fourth isle and slowly made his way down, looking at the multitude of toys still in their boxes, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Looking at one of the packages, he cautiously walked towards it, and studied the writing on the box: Kingdom Hearts Action Figures.

"No way…" Zashi breathed as he looked at the box, and then noticed the figures inside; Sora, Kairi and Riku were behind the plastic seal. Suddenly Sora's eyes shot open, and pointed to Zashi, "Hey…how did you get out of your box?" Zashi gave a shout and landed on his bottom from the sudden scare, but got up "I'm a person." Sora shook his head, "no your not…you're a toy." Riku gave a cold stare, "you definitely look like a toy to me." Zashi's mind raced to prove to them that he was not a toy, "oh yeah?" he asked, "Can a toy do this?" and held his right hand and summoned his keyblade, showing it off. This surprised Sora and the gang, "all right. So you're not a toy, what are you doing here anyway?" Riku asked in a sharp tone, but he was scolded by Kairi, "Riku! He's from the outside world! Beyond the store!" This caught Sora's attention, and quickly turned back to Zashi, "is it true? Are you from the outside world?" Zashi gave a nod, "Yea I'm looking for my friends, and I accidentally came to this world." Riku put his left hand to his chin, "do you know of Maleficent?" This surprised Zashi, "I know she is still in this world…have you guys seen her lately?" They all shook their heads, but then Kairi looked off into the distance, "well…there was the other night…"

Suddenly everyone had their eyes on Kairi, "I saw Maleficent walk down the isle with another toy…I think it was Emperor Zurg or someone but they were talking about the Heartless…" Zashi suddenly took a step backwards and looked at the packages hanging on the wall, "Do you know if the Heartless are still in their packages?" They shook their heads, and Sora gave a laugh, "we are trapped in here, we don't get out much." However Riku suddenly spoke up, "well one of the clerks was complaining that the Heatless figures were always missing…" Zashi looked at Riku, confused "what do you mean 'missing'?" Suddenly Kairi gave a scream, pointing to the ground behind Zashi, who whipped around to see Heartless mold from the spots of inky darkness on the floor. He charged at them, but they simply molded back into the floor and scurried around him, when they came back out, he swung his keyblade at them and destroyed two of the eight Heartless. Sensing they were facing a powerful opponent, the Heartless molded into a single being, who was as tall as Zashi and had glowing yellow eyes. It flexed it's muscles and charged toward Zashi, who also charged, but swung his keyblade too early to hit, and left him wide open to the Heartless's fist to Zashi's stomach, and was knocked back five feet. Catching his breath, Zashi got to his feet and charged again, and instead leaped into the air, and brought his keyblade down on the Heartless's head, causing it to vanish into a cloud of darkness.

"_If the Heartless can do that kind of thing on this world…what are they capable of on other worlds?"_ Zashi wondered to himself, holding his keyblade in hand…


	21. Return to Hollow Bastion

"Kairi you didn't need to scream so loudly…" Sora said, with his hands on his ears, just then Cloud, along with Woody and Jesse came running to the scene. "What happened?" Cloud asked Zashi, almost totally ignoring the toys in the box. "A real Heartless attacked, not like the stitched ones before…" Cloud put a hand to his chin in thought, "Well what does that mean?" Jesse spoke up, looking for an answer. Zashi turned to her, "I don't know…" Suddenly there was a slight banging on the plastic, "Maleficent is using the heartless! Come on, even I figured that one out!" Sora shouted from the box, then turned his back on them in anger, Cloud looked at the trio in wonderment, "Zashi…What are they doing here? I thought we had Kairi in Twilight Town?" Zashi slowly walked to the package and pointed to it, "they are the toy versions remember?" Cloud became confused for a moment, but then nodded his head, "Right. I had forgotten that we are in another world…" Woody walked up to the trio inside the package and looked them over, "so where are you from? Taiwan? China?" Riku was surprised, then searched himself, and found writing on the bottom of his boot: Made in Japan. He shrugged his shoulders, "guess we are 100 Japanese." Suddenly Zashi lifted his head, with a thought in his head, and grabbed Cloud by the shoulder, pushing him away from the group.

When they were far enough away, they stopped, "Cloud I have an idea: We release Sora, Kairi and Riku from the box, and let them take care of Maleficent, since its their world, and we still need to find Melanie and stop Rizu." Cloud took a moment to think the proposal over, then looked back at the group, "What if Jesse and Woody don't trust them? That could pose a problem…" Zashi was stunned, "Cloud. They have more in common than we do. They are toys and we are people…who happen to be toys right now." Cloud suddenly walked past Zashi and toward the group, and murmuring started to form, but Zashi could not make out what was being said, but then Cloud reached for his sword and easily crafted an exit for the toys in the package. Zashi walked slowly to the group, "I know its odd to leave you guys now since we are so close to finding Buzz… But there are bigger things that could affect every single world, including this one." Jesse and Woody just nodded their heads, and gave a wave, and started talking with their new companions. "So how are we going to get to Hollow Bastion?" Cloud said as he walked past Zashi, who scratched his head, "I don't really know…but I think I know of a way to get there…" With that, they wandered the store until they came across what they were looking for: a castle play set. "What are we doing with this?" Cloud asked sharply, Zashi returned the remark with a glare, "I was thinking that since the Keyblade unlocks worlds, shouldn't it be able to connect worlds too?" Cloud took a few steps forward and touched the plastic, then moving away from it, "it resembles Hollow Bastion…" He turned to see Zashi clutching his keyblade, repeating the words Hollow Bastion over and over, then he charged towards the door of the play set, and stabbed it with the keyblade.

A brilliant light shone around the frame of the door, and Zashi grabbed the keyblade, and turned it left, hearing a click, the door creaked open, revealing the rising falls of Hollow Bastion, "Zashi…how did you do…" Cloud was cut off by Zashi, who pushed him through the vortex, and Zashi also passed through the vortex, and they landed on the cobblestone platform. Just as they had gotten to their feet, the portal vanished, "Sorry Cloud, I didn't know how much time we had until it shut on us…" Cloud brushed off the dust from his cloak and looked towards the castle, "Rizu is waiting for us." With that, he started jumping from one floating block to another, leaving Zashi behind, who quickly gave chase. Reaching the final platform, they waited for the lift machine to carry them to the top, "Zashi. This will be the most difficult thing you will ever do. Are you ready?" Cloud asked, looking at him, who gave a nod, "Its now or never right?" Cloud looked at the platform racing down to greet them, they boarded, and it shot at blinding speed towards the massive castle. Zashi looked at the massive Heartless symbol, and his eyes seemed to deceive him; the heart seemed to be beating at a regular pace. _"What's going on? What is Rizu up to?" _When they jumped off the platform, there came a low laughter, "Cloud…You have risen again? Your time with the keyblade masters is making you weak." In an instant, there was a loud clang of metal, and Sephiroth and Cloud had clashed swords. Cloud jumped to the right, and held out his hand, "Hold. I know of a place where we can finish this, without restraint." This interested the silver haired warrior, "Where is this place?" Cloud narrowed his gaze, "the Coliseum." Within an instant, Sephiroth had vanished, then Cloud turned to Zashi, "I don't know if I will come back from this fight, you will have to go this alone." His head started to lower from the statement, "but don't give up hope; it's the only thing you have." Cloud said as he too vanished, leaving Zashi all alone…


	22. Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Zashi stood; gazing out into the horizon, then turned and started making his way to the giant set of doors. After taking a few steps, he stopped in his tracks, and heard a bubbling sound, and turned to see many Darkball heartless appear all around him; starring at him. Suddenly, shadows started to crawl from the floor, but they remained at a distance, and were not paying attention to Zashi. Looking at the heartless, Zashi carefully walked past them, trying not to get too close to them, if they decided to attack, "what's going on? I thought the Heartless attacked on sight?" He spoke to himself, and made his way to the door and pushed the left one open and walked through, coming to a large circular room with two staircases along the rounded walls. Walking to the right, Zashi looked around the room for anything that was odd, but found nothing only suits of armor standing in front of the pillars, and pots sitting on the ground.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Zashi turned to his left and wandered toward the door, and opened it, revealing the library, walking carefully and looking at the volumes on the shelves Zashi started looking for something in particular. "I wonder if Ansem would have anything on this keyblade I have…" however, something else caught his eye it was a large book, with the words Project BLACK written on the spine. Pulling the book from the shelf, Zashi absently mindedly walked through the maze of bookshelves and up the stairs to a small table with a candle. Opening the book, he flipped through the pages, and Zashi was astonished, _"These pages are blank…"_ he thought to himself as he looked through the entire book, and absolutely nothing was written on any of the pages, but just as he was about to set the book back, the black keyblade suddenly appeared in his hand, and it had a mind of its own, and tapped the book twice.

Darkness flowed from the weapon to the book, and suddenly the pages had words written on them, looking through the book Zashi tried to read the words, but they were written in another language, one he had never seen before. "I wonder what this book is about…" Zashi said aloud as he closed the book, but as the cover folded over, the book vanished into thin air, he jumped back from the disappearance of the book and looked around for it, but he could not find it. Getting up from the table, Zashi wandered toward the door, but he head a female voice, "Zashi! Wherever you are help me!" he lifted his head into the air and knew the voice, "Melanie? Melanie! Where are you?" frantically looking around, he saw the passage way in-between the book shelves and walked toward it.

Squinting his eyes to see through the darkness, Zashi put his hands out in front of him as a guide, and felt the wall to his right, and went along slowly for a while. Suddenly after a short time, the wall vanished, and so did the floor, leaving him to fall into darkness. _"What's going on? Why am I not afraid of the darkness all the sudden?"_ Zashi thought to himself as he fell, closing his eyes, he felt himself falling, but then he heard Melanie's voice again, "Zashi! You've got to hurry! I don't know what Rizu is doing!" With that, his eyes shot open, and he shouted into the Darkness, "Melanie! Hold on!" With that, Zashi turned his body to have his feet land first, and he gently floated down onto a dark blue floor with a massive heartless symbol in the center. Finally feeling the ground with his feet, Zashi held out his right hand and summoned the dark keyblade and ran through the room he landed in and started running up the right set of stairs, right to the top.

Suddenly, a low laugh echoed through the massive room, "So the tainted hero comes at last…" Rizu spoke with a wicked grin on his face, Zashi threw his left hand in front of him, "what are you talking about 'tainted'?" Rizu gave another laugh, "Haven't you noticed how the Heartless don't attack you anymore? Or how you can listen to Melanie?" Zashi stood for a moment, then shouted, "I can hear Melanie because our hearts are connected!" Shaking his head from side to side, Rizu chuckled to himself, "no…your heart is being taken by Darkness." Zashi stood shocked, "wha…How?" Was all the words he could speak, but then Rizu pointed to the keyblade, "you honestly think wielding that keyblade, designed for the Heartless wasn't going to affect you?" Clang. The keyblade fell from Zashi's hands, and he fell to his knees and looked at his hand, it had slowly started to become black, like Rizu's skin. "I DON'T WANT TO BE A HEARTLESS!" Zashi screamed, trying to make the darkness go away, but it stopped at his elbow, when he suddenly found his ankles in shackles, Rizu turned around, "This is the greatest moment in the Heartless! Watch as I become ruler of Darkness!" With that, he snapped his fingers, and two muscular heartless with swords were summoned, "Go get her." Rizu whispered to them, and they floated into the massive heartless shaped portal, and came out with Melanie, who had bags under her eyes from the crying she had done. "Mel-!" Zashi started to shout her name, but he had been cut off by a wave of Rizu's hand, "I can't have any distractions."

Melanie was set on the ground, but her body floated gently into the air, "Her heart is an unusual one. She has far more darkness than any ordinary person." Rizu said as he walked toward her, but then he stopped and turned to Zashi saying, "This is the end of everything… I will totally control all Darkness…"

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OK. I know that this title chapter is...extremely GENERIC for Kingodm Hearts...but I think it suits it best for whats in store next... 


	23. The Darkness Within

The Darkness Within

A Kingdom Hearts Fanfic

By:

Chison

"NO!" Zashi shouted to Rizu, who reacted with a smirk on his face, and slowly started to walk towards Melanie. Trying to move his legs, Zashi found that they seemed to be glued to the floor, and he looked in horror as the darkness crawled further up his arm, looking to Rizu, he was only a few feet away from Melanie, he had the two heartless lift her up, and he slowly walked right into her body. The winged heartless let go of the limp body, but it got to its feet, and turned to Zashi, "I control Darkness!" Rizu said, but suddenly, his eyes went wide; and he started screaming at the top of his lungs, "WHAT IS GOING ON?" He fell to his knees, holding his head as his scream became louder, and then Zashi heard a voice he knew; it was Melanie, but her voice had been blended with Rizu's, "Zashi! HELP ME!"

Trying to break free of the magic on his feet, he reached for her, "Melanie! Hold on!" However her body had started to float into the air, with her arms extended, and then her body started to become smaller, then it was simply a black sphere. Feeling he could move again, he rushed toward the sphere, but something stopped him. Streams of black matter started to flow into the sphere, his right hand suddenly reached for the sphere, and the darkness slowly melted away from his hand like ice, and flowed toward the ball of darkness. Looking over his arm to make sure the darkness had left, he looked at the sphere, and saw black lightning bolts streak around the sphere, when suddenly the sphere grew from only being a foot in diameter, to five feet, it gave off a massive wave of darkness accompanied by a strong gust of wind, easily picking up Zashi and smashing him against a wall. Having the wind knocked out of him, and screaming with nothing coming out, Zashi could feel the bones in his body start to break under the pressure of the wind and the wall behind him.

However, it was all over as quickly as it had started, and Zashi slowly fell from the wall, and landed on the ground with a loud thump. Slowly opening his eyes, he gazed around the floor, finding the rubble of his body being forcefully pushed into the wall; he got on his hands and knees, and caught his breath, _"What…What happened?"_ He thought to himself as he looked upwards to the stairs, and noticed a faint light from the top. Climbing to his feet, Zashi slowly wandered up the stairs, using the wall for support, and when he reached the top, he was stunned with fear at what he saw.

A bubbling black mass of liquid and solid floated into the air, however as if sensing another person, it started to convulse, and a pair of legs started to form, with razor sharp feet, then the torso formed into a woman's and the arms sprouted from the torso. The fingers suddenly angled into a point, and seemed to shimmer in the light, first the left hand, then the left, and then the rest of the mass of darkness centered above the torso, and slowly a neck formed, along with a head. With a feature-less face, save for a mouth, the eyes suddenly shot open, revealing a pair of blood red eyes, and white hair sprouted from the head, and defied gravity and floated, as if in water.

The creature suddenly turned to Zashi, "You…Have something of mine." Holding out its right hand, darkness started to form around Zashi, and a tiny sphere of darkness floated from Zashi to the creature. When it arrived in its hands, it suddenly became the dark keyblade, she swung it, leaving black slashes of Darkness in its wake. "Now I have no use for you…" The creature gave a wicked grin, showing off her dangerously sharp, black teeth. She raised her left hand, and suddenly neo heartless started to form from every shadow in the room, "I could let my brothers have your heart…But what would be the fun in that?" Zashi was totally stunned with fear, only able to breath rapidly, she started to walk toward him, and got into his face, "aw…what's the matter? Heartless got your tongue?" _"I don't know what to do! She can kill me any time…I don't even have a weapon!" _Zashi frantically thought to himself, however she just walked around him, "I don't know what Melanie saw in you…it must have been your darkened heart…" This brought him out of his state of shock, "What do you mean?" The creature laughed uproariously, "Melanie liked, no loved you, but I guess it was only for your heart, since it is being eaten away by darkness…" Zashi turned to the Heartless asking, "What's happened to Melanie?" She narrowed her eyes, "She is part of me now. The Melanie you knew is part of my power over the Heartless and gave me some of my form. She is sealed inside, just like I was inside her."

Zashi took a step backwards in fear, but the creature simply looked at his feet, which were suddenly covered in a black, liquid matter. "Now…What shall we do with your heart?" with that, she plunged her left hand into Zashi's chest. His eyes went wide, and sweat started to drip off his chin, and his body became numb, starting from the torso and spreading throughout his body. She pulled out the heart, and looked at it; the heart was almost entirely black, save for a few spots of orange, "Not much longer until you become a Heartless now…" Zashi's limp body fell to the floor, and his vision started to blur, and sounds became distorted, but suddenly he heard a loud scream. Tilting his head ever so slowly, he saw a mass of brown, white and silver.

The neo heartless had made a path, and a teenage woman was walking down the trail. Having short brown hair, and shimmering blue eyes, she wore a black shirt, with a red vest, covered in pockets and a white pair of white baggy pants with two pockets on the sides, and a pair of black shoes. Lifting her right hand, she pointed the keyblade to the creature, "Don't hurt my friend." She said in a firm tone, and moved closer to Zashi. "Are you all right?" she asked, but when she did not get a response, she looked for the heart that the creature had dropped; she quickly grabbed it, and placed it on his chest. Within a moment, Zashi was sitting up, and looked into the girl's eyes, "Marlena?" He asked, and she slowly gave a nod, "We will have to catch up some other time…" Turning around, Zashi a black hand crawl on the floor, and froze with fear.

Looking at the hand, it slowly returned to the creature, climbing up her leg, and attaching to her limb. "That was actually painful…" She said as she flexed her hand, and turned her attention to the keyblade wielder, "I will have to destroy you first…" The other Heartless became restless, and swinging with their hands toward the pair, "Zashi…" Marlena whispered, "do you have a weapon?" He slowly shook his head, "All right. I will reverse my Gravity spell…and make you fly away with a wind spell…" He was surprised, "Wait…what will you do?" She lowered her head, "I will buy you some time to escape…I can take care of myself…I will do it on Three…" Zashi started to shake his head, "No…" Marlena had already started to count down, "Three…" his head shook more now, "two…" The room grew tense, with the Heartless ready to attack, "One!" With the last word, Marlena and Zashi disappeared in a glimmer of bright light…

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WOW...This is two hours of my life I will NEVER regret! This has been poured from the very flames of my SOUL! It took a while to come up with a title, but I wanted to get to his point the whole time, and its finally here! This story will get alot better from here! Expect lots of character interaction, magic stuff, and a MASSIVE battle...So stay tuned! 


	24. Project BLACK

Project BLACK

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Marlena suddenly stopped her spell, and took a quick look around the room. Zashi also took a long, hard look at the white room they had been suddenly transported to. Marlena slowly got to her feet and looked around, "this kind of looks like…" she started, still looking, and Zashi finished her sentence, "Like Namine's room?" looking to her, she gave a nod and wandered towards the drawings hanging from the wall. "Look. Its Sora, Riku and Kairi…" Marlena pointed to a picture, and Zashi walked beside her to see, "Not a moment too late…" a female voice came from behind the duo, they whipped around to see Namine sitting in a chair across the room. Zashi's face lit up, "You saved us right Namine?" She gave a solemn nod, and pointing to two spots around the table, two chairs appeared, "I need to talk to both of you." Marlena quickly took the chair to Namine's right, and Zashi to the left, "I know the darkness in Melanie's heart has been unsealed. It will not be easy to defeat her now…" Zashi looked at both of the girls, "have either of you heard about a thing called Project Black?"

Marlena simply shook her head, but Namine's eyes suddenly grew wide, and she began to shake. "Namine…What's wrong?" Marlena said, extending a hand to her shoulder, but Namine suddenly stood up and walked to the window. "Project Black is something Ansem had started, he was trying to make a heart totally born of darkness…" Zashi shook his head, "but…you can't make a heart from darkness…right?" Namine simply shook her head, "before Ansem fell into madness, he theorized that it could be done, and later after he became obsessed with darkness, he experimented on the only person left: his unborn child." Marlena suddenly stood up in her chair, "How insane do you have to be to do something like that?" Namine turned around to meet Marlena's gaze, "remember: Ansem was part of darkness now." With that, Marlena sat down, letting Namine continue, "before this happened, another child of Ansem was sent away to another world before the darkness overcame his senses." Zashi went wide eyed, "Kairi…" Namine simply shook her head, "that's right. Later when the experiment started and the child was born, Ansem's wife came to me, and begged me to seal the darkness in the baby's heart and send it to another world." She looked out the window again, "I used the best seal I knew and sent her away…I never head from Ansem's wife after she left…"

The room fell into silence. Namine suddenly walked over to Zashi, "your heart…" she started, and then quickly cleared the table, pointing to it, "Zashi climb onto the table and lay flat on your back!" Being confused, he sat there, "but…why?" "Do you want the darkness to take over your heart!" Namine said firmly, and within a moment, Zashi was lying on the table, and looked to both of the girls and said, "Will I be OK?" Namine flashed a smile and put her hands on Zashi's chest, and gently passed through his body, reaching his heart. Carefully pulling the object out, Namine let it float in the air, and said, "we need to seal the darkness…he does not have much time before he is a Heartless…" With that, Namine put her hands around the heart, and drew a keyhole with her fingers, and turned to Melanie, "use the Keyblade to seal Zashi's heart." She gave a nod, and pointed the Keyblade to the makeshift key hole and a single beam of light shot from the tip of the weapon into the hole, making a clicking noise, and the heart changed color from black to a bright orange and gently descended back into Zashi.

Sitting up on the table, Zashi looked at the two girls with a smile on his face, "wow…I feel great! Its like I never had any darkness to begin with…" with that, he got off the table, and turned to Namine, who was doodling in a sketch book, "What are you drawing Namine?" Zashi asked, trying to look at the picture, but she just shut the book, "A keyblade. Now that the darkness in your heart is sealed away, hopefully another keyblade will come to you."

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I know this is kinda a short chapter compared to the last one, but I now have school again, so...expect semi-regular updates...Also obsessed with Kingdom Hearts II...but thats beside the point... 


	25. The Faint Star in the Dark Sky

The Faint Star

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Zashi looked at Namine in shock, "you can influence a keyblade?" She gave a nod, and sat down at the table. "You will need it to defeat the darkness now…" Zashi swallowed a lump in his throat and sat down, "There was a book in Hollow Bastion called Project Black…but it disappeared…" Marlena looked at him, "did you try and look for it?" Zashi simply nodded his head, but then noticed Namine was back at her drawing, and within a few moments, she placed the pencil on the table and closed the book, "It's a good thing you found that book, or else it would have fallen into darkness…" by the time she had finished speaking, the black book suddenly appeared and made a loud thump when landing on the table.

Reaching for the book, Namine pulled it to herself and began to thumb through the pages, stopping at one. "This is not good. According to this, Melantha can destroy worlds on a whim, since she is a being with a heart filled with darkness…" A bead of sweat ran down Zashi's face, "ok…so how do we defeat something like that?" Namine shook her head, "I don't know…but you must try…" Suddenly, Marlena got up from the table and walked towards the window, looking out. She gave a great sigh, "I never thought something like this would happen…All we had to do was seal the door…and I did…" Zashi got up from the table and walked to his friend and put a hand on her shoulder, "I guess there is just one last Heartless to take care of…right?" Marlena turned around, "no…I just want to go home…I'm sick of battling the Heartless all the time…I remember when life was simple on our world…" Zashi turned his gaze from his friend, remembering the times that were spent at the ocean side. "If you defeat her, then everything will go back to normal…The worlds will return and you can go back." Marlena whipped around to Namine, "I know that…But its hard…"

"Don't give up hope; it's the only thing we have…" Zashi's voice echoed throughout the room, Marlena turned back to him with tears in her eyes, "where did you hear that from?" Zashi gave a smile, "Cloud told me once…" Marlena raised her hands to wipe away the tears, and extended her right hand, and a golden light came into her hands, forming into a keyblade, "I'm ready to go home; what about you Zashi?" He nodded in agreement, "that's the spirit, you two." Namine gave a smile, and threw a card toward Zashi. "That will take you to Traverse Town, since you will need to prepare for what's ahead." Marlena walked up to Namine, and gave her a hug, "thank you for everything Namine…I hope to see you again." Zashi also walked to Namine, and extended his right hand, "Thanks Namine, you are great." She shook the hand, and the duo stopped at the door, and placed the card onto it.

Slowly changing from pure white, the door started to shape into a wooden door, with massive black hinges. Giving a wave, Zashi and Marlena opened the door and passed through, placing them on the outskirts of the First District of Traverse Town. "I wonder how everyone is doing…" Marlena thought out loud, "I hope Cloud is here to give me a weapon until the keyblade comes…" Zashi said as they walked further into town, but they stopped when they saw Leon and the gang rush towards them, "Both of you are safe!" Aerith was the first to speak, then turned pointed to the sky, "All the worlds have faded, and everyone has felt a deep darkness…What's been going on?" Marlena suggested they explain on the way back to the small house, by the time they had reached the house, the group was up to speed to the events at Hollow Bastion.

"But there is one star that is still in the sky…" Leon pointed to the nearly invisible glimmer of light hanging in the night sky. Everyone turned to look, "That's where she is…" Zashi breathed, and everyone looked at him, "how do you know?" Marlena asked, but he simply pointed to his heart, "the darkness tells me…"


	26. Calm before the Storm

Calm before the Storm

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Everyone stood, gazing at the star, then Marlena turned to Leon, "does Cid have a Gummi ship we can use?" Yuffie turned to Marlena, "I don't know, but he is always working in the basement of the house, just down the stairs and in the wall." Marlena gave a nod, and grabbed Zashi by the hand and led him down the stairs, giving a wave to everyone, "Marlena? What are you doing?" Reaching the door together, she stopped, "I just want to get home…its nice meeting everyone…but I want to go home…the sooner the better…" Zashi gave a nod, and placed his hand on the door, and turned the handle and opened it, but a massive cloud of smoke greeted him, along with loud coughing. A gruff, male voice was heard shouting to himself. "Dang! I almost had that engine running!"

Marlena and Zashi waved the smoke away from their faces and walked into the room, which was a large rectangular room, with a set of stairs leading into the workshop. "oh! Zashi and…" the man extended a hand to Marlena, who shook it and gave her name, "Oh! Right! You're the first one to ask me about Zashi here… Anyway, what do you need?" The duo looked at each other, and Zashi spoke, "Cid…we need a Gummi ship." Cid's excitement drained. "I only have one I am currently working on…but I can't get the engines to fire…" He turned his back on them, and motioned to follow, and walked toward a large object draped with a sheet. "Its not working right now so don't get excited…" Cid said as he placed his hands onto the sheet, and in one swift motion, he pulled it off, revealing a sleek, two winged Gummi ship. "Cid…" Marlena said as she walked toward it, placing her hands on the surface, "this is amazing…" Zashi's attention had wandered from the ship to the rest of the room, which was filled with numerous Gummi blocks, computers, and a giant cylinder. Walking over to the cylinder, Zashi pointed to it and turned to Cid, "Is this the engine?" Cid looked, and brushed his right thumb against his nose and walked to the engine, "Yes. Like I said before, I'm havin' a hard time getting the engine to fire…"

The Gummi ship was painted in silver, with two rings of black around each of the wings, and the cockpit, which Cid had climbed into, and started flipping switches, and turning knobs, he got out and said, "Listen, I am going to fire the engines again, move out of the way." With that, Marlena and Zashi moved to the walls, while in the cockpit, Cid had pushed a red button, the engine roared to life, but there was no thrust, and it simply died. "Well…that was better than the last few tests…" Cid claimed as he turned in the cockpit and pulled out a crystal, and climbed out, showing the crystal to the pair, "look, this blaze gem has enough energy to turn on the engine, but it wont give it the thrust to leave the world…"

Thinking for a moment, Marlena put a hand to her chin in thought and said, "well…what if you had a spark to start it?" Cid lightly laughed, "In order to 'spark' the engine I would need at least a flame of 2500 degrees, or roughly 900 blaze gems." Zashi's mouth dropped at the amount, and stood dumbfounded, "well… I know some magic…I might be able to do something…" Marlena said, while Cid placed a hand on his chin, "what kind of magic do you know? Fire?" She gave a nod, "It might work…" Marlena said, then Cid asked, "can you focus it into a beam of fire?" She looked off into another part of the room, "I think I can…" Cid put a hand on her shoulder, "Ill give you a shot at this, Zashi you need to move to the stairwell, since you might get burned." Moving slowly, Zashi watched Marlena and Cid get ready for the test, where at one end was a large, round metal sheet, attached to a computer.

"All right kid, whenever you're ready." Cid gave her the thumbs up, and Marlena held out her right hand and summoned her keyblade, and pointed it towards the sheet, and chanted a few words, and a small flame formed at the tip of the weapon. Suddenly, a brilliant beam of fire shot from the keyblade to the metal sheet, however it was not focused, but with great effort, Marlena managed to focus the fire into a single beam about two feet around. "Great! You can stop now." Cid shouted over the noise of the flames, and they simply died out, "So? Is it good enough?" Zashi asked from the stairwell, but Cid was already hard at work on his computer, calculating and turned to each of them, "Its enough, but you need to hold the flame for at least 15 seconds to start the engine." Marlena was exhausted from the ordeal, and slumped to her knees, breathing heavily, "I'm not too sure I can hold the flame for 15 seconds…but I will try…but right now…I need some sleep…" with that, she fell face forward onto the floor, despite the shouts of Zashi and Cid.

Zashi rushed to Marlena's side and picked up her head, and Cid came to her side, "its all right…she has only passed out…we had better get her to a bed in the house." Cid said as he grabbed her arms, "Zashi get her legs." He did as he was told, and they made their way slowly out of the workshop and up the flight of stairs towards the small house, and were greeted by Aerith, who quickly made a bed for Marlena to rest on, and whipped up some tea for the guys to drink, "Cid…what happened down there?" Aerith asked, wanting a suitable answer, "She wanted to help with the engine, so I let her…I didn't know something like this would happen." Zashi quietly pulled up a chair and sat beside Marlena, simply watching her rest, Aerith noticed and quickly shooed Cid out of the house, "I will be waiting outside, call if you need anything." Aerith said with a smile, which comforted Zashi, and he turned his attention back to Marlena; however his eye lids had also grown heavy, and he fell asleep in the chair.


	27. Dark Dreams

Dark Dreams

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Slowly opening his eyes, Zashi looked around, and was stunned at what he saw: the bench and beach of his memories. He looked around, but the beach and the city seemed deserted, and Zashi made his way to the bench, looking out at the water, the waves did not roll in and out, the ocean was still. "What's going on here?" Zashi asked himself, and looked towards the city, however everything seemed normal, and suddenly the ground started to shake violently, knocking Zashi off his feet, and he watched the buildings in horror. The buildings had become twisted, and purple, tree-like branches burst from the buildings, apparently reaching for the sky, which had turned from blue to black. Turning back to the ocean, he saw the water change from clear water, to a deep purple, and started to crack the sand where it was sitting on shore, Zashi quickly moved away from the water, and turned back to the bench, which was the only piece that remained untouched by the phenomenon.

"I've always liked how Darkness twists everything…" a female voice came to Zashi from the ocean, who turned around to see Melantha, floating above the water, with her hands folder across her torso. "so…You think the Darkness won't affect you anymore just because its sealed?" she gave a wicked grin from ear to ear, "remember, Melanie's seal was broken by a single Heartless…" She floated towards Zashi, and brushed a finger against his face, "It's a shame…Namine put so much work into such a lousy seal…" With that, Melantha plunged her hand into Zashi's chest, and tried to pull out the heart, but it wouldn't budge, after a few tries, she removed her hand, causing Zashi to fall to his knees, holding his chest, "You…" he breathed, "You can't break my heart so easily now…" Melantha grabbed Zashi by his head and slowly lifted him to her eye level, "what do you mean?" Zashi gave a weak smile, "Marlena used the keyblade and sealed my heart…" She let go of his head, letting him drop back to the ground, "well then…I will have to take care of the key bearer first…"

Zashi got up from the ground, "no you won't, since this is only a dream. My dream." With that, he held out his right hand, and a beam of light formed, and he grasped it, and it formed into a keyblade. He pointed the keyblade to Melantha, "Leave now." Zashi spoke in a low tone, and she shrugged, "fine, only because its your dream…but when we meet, you will not stand a chance against the Darkness!" With that, she vanished into a black cloud, and suddenly the sky returned to its natural blue, the ocean sprang to life, waves gently crashing onto the shore.

* * *

Rolling over in the bed, Marlena slowly opened her eyes, but then she shot straight up in her bed. Looking around the room, she recognized the objects in the room; the dresser to her right, and the poster of her favorite band hanging on the opposite wall, The television was along the wall, with the Playstation 2 attached. Marlena threw off her sheets, and quickly a plastic, clanging noise came from her right, she followed the cable, and found the controller for the video game system, "I guess I must have fallen asleep playing games again…" Marlena said to herself, and got up from the bed, and wandered out of her room and towards the living room, down a short flight of stairs, and when she reached the window, her jaw dropped.

From her window, she saw the beach, full of people, the boardwalk and the towering city behind it, filled with activity. Seeing her hometown, Marlena ran out the front door, and down to the water, laughing as she went, "Hey Marlena!" A female voice called to her, she turned in the direction of the voice, she cautiously walked toward the voice, but her walk turned into a sprint, "Iris!" Marlena shouted back, and ran towards her friend. The two of them talked for what seemed like hours, and Marlena finally asked, "Iris…do you know where Zashi is?" Iris gave a simple nod, and pointed to the ocean, Marlena followed the direction, to find Zashi standing, knee deep in the water with this back to them.

Marlena's face lit up as she saw him, and made a mad dash for him, but it seemed the closer she got to Zashi, the further away he seemed. Quickly stopping in her tracks, Marlena whipped around, looking back towards the town, however the sky had turned a deep shade of purple with lightning ripping through the sky, followed by loud booms of thunder. Looking for the city, or even the boardwalk, it had become shrouded in darkness, and the sand had formed large cracks, as if it were becoming a desert, everything had been absorbed by the dark sky.

Turning back to Zashi, the sky was still blue, with white fluffy clouds hanging in the sky and Marlena continued to run towards him. "Zashi…" Marlena said, finally catching up to him, he slowly turned around his eyes were dull and he had a slight grin on his face, and stretched out his left hand to her. She started to reach for Zashi's hand, but saw a massive wall of water rushing towards them, but the water changed from being crystal clear, to being black.

Within an instant, the water rushed over the pair, Marlena had closed her eyes from the water, but they shot open, revealing darkness all around her, however Zashi's clothes and skin had become black, except for only a dim pair of yellow eyes shimmered from him, and Zashi extended his arm further, and suddenly Marlena heard a voice echo throughout the darkness, "Come with me…" Tears streamed down Marlena's face because she knew the voice: it was Zashi…

* * *

Ok. This chapter is split up into two parts: Zashi's dream and Marlena's. I wrote most of Marlena's dream while I was at work, thinking how scarry a dream it would be...so! There is the next chappie, dont worry, we are getting to the Massive Battle part soon... 


	28. Concerns of the Heart

Concerns from the Heart

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

"Zashi…" a female voice called to him, "Zashi! Come on wake up!" A different voice echoed, and he sat right up in the chair and looked around, seeing Aerith and Yuffie's face in his view. "What's up?" he questioned, and stretched his arms, and cracked his neck, first to the right, then the left making Aerith cringe and Yuffie gave a big grin saying, "well sleepy-head, Marlena is finished with the ship and is ready to go." Zashi got up slowly from the chair, feeling his bones creak from sleeping in the chair, "I guess its time for me to go then," Zashi smiled, and waved the girls goodbye and left the house, "hold on." A male voice came from behind him.

Leon moved from leaning against the house and walked towards Zashi. "do you even have a weapon?" he questioned Zashi, who smiled, "Namine said that a keyblade should be coming to me soon…" Leon nodded, "right. But you need a weapon to defend yourself right?" With that, Leon moved his left hand behind him and tossed Zashi a long object wrapped in a white sheet. Taking off the sheet, the metal glimmered in the light from the street signs, it was a sword, with a white blade and a red hilt, outlined in black. "I found that in the waterway here in Traverse Town…" Leon said, and Zashi looked the blade over, and swung it a few times, "thanks Leon." He simply nodded his head, "no problem."

Carrying the sword, Zashi made his way down the steps and walked to Cid's lab and entered. "Ah! Zashi! The ship is all ready to go." Cid said giving a wave, Zashi returned one and looked at Marlena, who turned away, "Marlena…what's wrong?" Zashi asked, but she mumbled her words so he couldn't understand, "are you ready?" Marlena's words came clear as a bell, and Zashi nodded, and she climbed into the cock-pit of the Gummi ship, _"that's weird…I've never seen Marlena act this way before…"_ Zashi thought to himself as he grabbed a hold of the railing, but another hand was placed on his, turning to see, it was Cid, "Listen…when you two get back…" he started, "just tell me one thing…" Zashi tilted his head, "what?" Cid gave a big grin, "Just tell me how she handles." With that, Cid let go of Zashi and he climbed into the cock-pit, with Marlena sitting in the passenger seat.

Waving to Cid, Zashi looked at the controls, and grasped the steering stick, and slowly the ceiling started to move backwards, showing off the dimly lit night sky. Moving his right hand from the steering stick to the throttle, Zashi took a deep breath, and pushed the mechanism forward, launching the ship from the laboratory, pushing both Zashi and Marlena back into their seats. Leaving Traverse Town, Zashi let go of the throttle and watched the few stars in the sky pass him by, he pushed a button that said, "Auto Pilot", and turned to Marlena, "what did you want to talk to me about in Cid's lab?" She panicked for a moment, then looked out the window, "Zashi…do you remember the opening movie for Kingdom Hearts?" This took him back, seeing Sora running towards Riku, and being thrashed by the tidal wave, "yeah, I do." He finally said, she moved her attention from the window to Zashi, "I had a dream like that…but a few things were different…" He looked into her eyes, "like what?"

Marlena's eyes moved all over the place, as if trying to find a starting point in her mind, "well…All of us were back in our city, you and Iris too…" This caught Zashi's attention, and she kept on going, "well I woke up in my room, and raced outside when I saw it was our town, and talked with Iris, and I asked her were you were, and…" her voice trailed, "I was standing in the water?" Zashi guessed, and she nodded, "right, when I ran towards you, I stopped for a moment, and turned to look behind me, but there was nothing…and looking to you, everything was still picture perfect, and you did the same thing Riku did in the movie…" Zashi put a hand on hers, "but after the wave struck, everything was black, except for you…because you had turned into a Heartless…" by now, tears were running down her face, "and you said, 'come with me…'" With that, she finally broke down, and started crying into the seat cushion. "Marlena…" Zashi moved his hand from hers and to her shoulder, "its all right… Namine sealed the darkness in my heart remember?" She turned from the cushion, "Zashi! The Darkness is still there! Melantha could open it, and change you into a Heartless!"

Opening his mouth to speak Zashi tried to formulate speech. However, nothing came out and he simply rubbed Marlena's shoulders as she sobbed, but instead of the cushion, she planted her face against Zashi's chest. He simply smiled and continued to rub Marlena's shoulders, "I will never be turned into a Heartless…" Zashi whispered to himself, looking at the faint star still in the distance…


	29. Twisted World

Twisted World

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Hearing a faint beeping, Zashi slowly opened his eyes, and took a look around, out the window and into the infinite darkness radiating from the world that was hovering in his view. Feeling something heavy on his chest, he saw that Marlena was still fast asleep against him. Zashi smiled and put a hand on her shoulder, "hey Marlena… its time to wake up…" he said gently shaking her shoulder, and she stirred, but quickly moved back to her seat, "Sorry Zashi…I didn't mean to fall asleep on you like that…" He simply shook his head, and pointed out the window, "We are here…I'm surprised that we are still in one piece…" Marlena was also looking out the window, "Uh…don't get comfortable yet…" and pointed to the multitude of ships that suddenly appeared in the inky black.

Confusion washed over Zashi, "huh? They are not attacking or anything…" looking at the ships, but he grabbed the controls and slowly descended to the planet, trying to make sure the Heartless ships did not attack them, flying through the atmosphere, the ship suddenly dropped, as a loud beeping came from the controls and buttons flashed constantly. "What's happening!" Zashi shouted to himself as he tried to regain control of the ship, but Marlena turned to look behind her, and saw the blaze gem had shattered, being only a fine, red dust. She turned to Zashi, "the blaze gem is shattered…" Zashi looked at Marlena in panic, "WHAT?" and turned to see, and sure enough, the crystal was gone, only dust in its place. Zashi started talking to himself, "what are we going to do…" Suddenly a idea came to Marlena, who summoned her keyblade, and started bashing it against the window, "MARLENA! What are you doing?" Zashi shouted at the top of his lungs, she turned back to him for a moment, "getting us out of here! We probably have a better chance of surviving if we are not trapped in the ship!"

With those words, the glass of the window suddenly broke, and Marlena slowly started making her way out of the ship when she turned back for Zashi and extended her left hand, "Take my hand!" He looked at the hand, and then into Marlena's eyes, and he took off the seat belt and grabbed a hold of her hand, and they gently floated out of the ship, which started falling faster toward the ground. Falling through the clouds, they finally saw the edge of the continent they were falling towards, when Marlena looked at Zashi smiling, feeling the wind rush around them, Zashi took notice and also smiled, but Marlena moved the keyblade in front of her, and a thick beam of light shot from the tip, and started to spiral underneath them, and formed a slide, leading right down to the ground.

Sliding on the light, Zashi couldn't help but smile at the fun he was having, and as soon as the light appeared, they finally planted their feet on the ground, and heard a tremendous splash coming from the ocean, turning to look it was the Gummi ship, totally wrecked and pieces sinking to the bottom. Marlena looked from the ocean to the horizon, which was totally different than anything she has ever seen, the sky was a blood red color, and black clouds gently moved across the sky. Looking at the ocean once more, she saw that the ocean had turned stagnant, and the water had turned a deep shade of purple, and she turned to see Zashi had taken a few steps away from her. "Zashi…what's wrong?" she said walking beside him, but her eyes went wide when she looked at the rest of the city.

"This…" Zashi started, "this is Melanie's home world…" looking at the buildings, however they had become twisted, like thorns from a rose, the roofs grew into a sharp point, as if reaching for the sky. Other buildings had been turned inside out, with many sharp edges protruding from them, and some of them had simply turned black. Looking around, they saw that all the plants had weathered and died, and the ground had become cracked, as though the very life of the world was being drained by the darkness. "Are you sure this was Melanie's world?" Marlena weakly asked, Zashi nodded his head, and pointed to a park bench about 25 feet away, "that's where I met Melanie for the first time…" Then he really looked at the bench, "It's the only thing that's not been touched by the darkness…"

Laughing started echoing throughout the whole world, and made Zashi and Marlena's hair stand on end, "Well…who would be stupid enough to try and attack me head on?" Zashi instantly knew the voice, "MELANTHA! Come out!" he shouted, pulling out his sword, but then Marlena pointed to the highest building, spotting Melantha. "I must admit: You've got courage…but nothing else." With that, she raised her left hand, and multitudes of neo heartless started to morph from every shadow cast by the buildings, and even from the dying ground, the heartless leaped into the air attacking their victims, a blue-black blur made a streak across them, and they disappeared…


	30. The Great Battle

The Great Battle

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Blinking for only a moment, Zashi quickly looked around, and found Marlena standing by his side, "uh…where did the Heartless go?" Marlena shrugged her shoulders when they heard a familiar voice, "You need to plan your attack, you can't run in swinging." Cloud said, walking past them pointing to the mass of Heartless. The duo suddenly realized where they were; they were standing on one of the skyscrapers, a swirling blue and black sphere hindered their vision. "Cloud! I thought you were fighting Sephiroth?" Zashi said, he turned to them, "when the wave of darkness reached us, we stopped, and when I turned around again, he was gone…" then he turned back to the Heartless, "This will test you both beyond anything you will have ever known…" Cloud said to himself, and Zashi and Marlena gazed upon the multitudes of Heartless, the ground seemed to flow, populated with yellow eyes. "How many Heartless do you think there are?" Cloud asked.

Marlena and Zashi shrugged their shoulders, and Cloud pointed to a group of Heartless, "look, there must be about 10,000 in that spot alone," looking the battle field over, Cloud put a hand on his forehead, "There are around 2 million Heartless down there…" Zashi's jaw dropped, "That's too many! Besides, Cloud how do you know?" He turned around, "I didn't defend Fort Condor it's view…" Zashi looked at Marlena, who shrugged again, "Listen, you will have to rely on each other to get through this. This is your battle, I can't help since I still have to track down Sephiroth…" Cloud gave a smile, and suddenly they appeared in front of the Heartless army, "don't worry, if anyone can do this, you two can." With that, Cloud vanished.

"I had wondered if you two had chickened out…" Melantha's voice echoed across the world, and Zashi turned to Marlena and held out his right hand, "After this is over…We can finally go home…" She turned to Zashi and put her hand in his, "Just a few more Heartless right?" He gave a laugh and drew his sword, and Marlena summoned her keyblade. Zashi first charged towards the army of Heartless, followed closely by Marlena.

Meeting the army first, Zashi slowly stopped, his sword constantly swinging, slicing through the Heartless, after a short time, Marlena also joined him, they battled towards each other, and when they finally came in contact, more heartless were rushing towards them, Zashi and Marlena put their backs together, going into the defensive. However the Neo Shadows seeped from the floor right in front of them, knocking them apart, Marlena constantly swung her keyblade, but no matter how many she destroyed, ten more would appear to take its place, "Zashi! Its not working!" Marlena shouted over the mass of Heartless, who stopped for a moment to hear, but was struck by a Neo Shadow, and he stumbled forward, and was struck by a different one. "ZASHI!" Marlena shouted as she threw the Keyblade towards Zashi, trying to get rid of the Heartless surrounding him. They faded away, and Marlena ran towards him, who by now had fallen to the ground, catching the Keyblade on its return path she charged through.

Finally reaching him, Marlena crouched down and lifted Zashi's head, he was still breathing, but it was rasp, she looked down at the ground, then to her Keyblade, "I cant stop here…Nothing will stop me…" With that, she stood up, and held the weapon high into the air, and slammed it to the ground shouting, "EXPLOSION!" With that, a brilliant light shot from the keyblade and radiated out, destroying most of the Heartless that were surrounding them. She took the keyblade out of the ground, and turned to the rest of the army of Heartless, and glared at them. Zashi slowly sat up, and looked at Marlena, wielding her keyblade, and she darted off to the army of Heartless.

Quickly looking for his sword, he found it a few feet away, he got to his feet and ran towards the Heartless. Giving a scream as she started disposing of the Heartless, Marlena became merciless, her attacks became more fierce, and fire burned in her eyes, _"All I want is to get home…All I have to do is defeat all of you!" _she thought as she continued to slice through them. Zashi ran to the Heartless and started swing his sword again, however some of the Neos leaped into the air, trying to attack him from above, but saw their shadows and jumped into the air, and continued to attack. Landing on the ground, he knocked some of the Heartless back on themselves, giving him a little more room.

The adrenaline in Marlena's body started to give out, and her attacks became weaker, and she was knocked back, screaming by two Neo Shadows. Zashi, hearing the scream, raced toward her, destroying Heartless as he went, and saw Marlena lying on the ground. Attacking the enemies around her, Zashi made some space, and looked at her, who slowly sat up, "Zashi…I can't go on much longer…There are just too many of them…" He moved in front of Marlena, "Remember? We have to get home!" Zashi shouted while destroying the Heartless that were rushing towards him, she slowly got to her feet, and summoned her keyblade and mumbled a few words. A flame formed at the tip of the weapon, and with a few more words, the flame turned into a beam of fire, destroying the Heartless that were standing right in front of them. "Listen…I don't have much energy, but I want to try that thing…" Zashi looked at her, "what thing?" Marlena got a grin on her face, "the thing I wanted to do at Hollow Bastion, if we reach Melantha, then she can't summon more Heartless…" He suddenly became worried, "the thing where I fly up in the air right?" She nodded, "I wont give you a count down, since they will move in and stop the spell…" Zashi looked at the multitude of Heartless rushing towards them, when suddenly he found himself screaming, and flying above the battlefield.

Feeling a gust of air behind him, Zashi started spinning in the air, towards Melantha, spinning so fast, he felt like he was going to hurl, but he spread his arms, and he stopped spinning, and flew towards Melantha. Flying for what seemed like forever, he finally spotted Melantha, standing on a pile of rubble, observing the scene playing out before her. "MELANTHA!" Zashi screamed as he rushed toward her, with his sword going before him, she barely noticed him in time to bring a keyblade to block the attack, creating a massive clang that echoed throughout the battle field, along with a shock wave from the impact, knocking Melantha back 9 feet from where she stood.

Falling to the ground, Zashi ran towards the female Heartless, not giving her a chance to react, but she skillfully blocked the attacks, and sliced his left shoulder, making him drop his sword, "That was bold…You will make a good slave…" Melantha mocked Zashi, but he bent down and picked up the sword in his right hand, and charged again, "I will stop you!" he shouted as he swung the sword, but she simply dodged, and attacked him with the blunt end of her weapon right in his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Falling to his knees, he looked up at Melantha.

"You're a fool to think you can win against Darkness…" with that, Melantha raised her keyblade to strike the final blow, but Zashi moved his hands to block the attack, and a beam of light formed in Zashi's hand, blocking the attack. "What…How?" Melantha questioned the sight, he was holding a keyblade in his hand. Zashi got to his feet and pointed his new weapon at her, "This is the end for you Melantha."

* * *

Whew...This took me a while to write, but I had alot of fun writing this chappie, and yes its very long. Much longer than my other chapters, so hope you had fun reading this chapter as much as I had writing it! 


	31. Darkness Vanquished

Darkness Vanquished

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Marlena suddenly stopped at the loud clang, and looked to Zashi, wielding a keyblade. A smile broke across her face, and she jumped in the air, and looked at the rest of the Heartless. They had turned their backs to her and were watching the battle between Melantha and Zashi unfold, Marlena rushed past them, staying off the urge to destroy one, fearing the whole army would be set against her she ran to the site of the battle, and her eyes went wide. Flashes of white light and darkness flowed, clanging against one another, echoing throughout the world.

Zashi suddenly jumped back, slouching and breathing heavily, he lifted his head to see Marlena, which made him smile, but a beam of darkness shot past his view, "I will deal with her when I'm done with you." Melantha mocked him, pointing her black keyblade at him, he readied his keyblade and ran towards Melantha, and she blocked his attacks, but suddenly Zashi lunged forward, and swung his keyblade from under his body, knocking Melantha into the air. Leaping after her, Zashi attacked Melantha mercilessly, after a few blows, he brought his keyblade on Melantha's head, rocketing her back to the ground making a small crater where she landed. "Way to go Zashi!" Marlena shouted with joy, jumping into the air, watching him slowly land back on solid ground, he looked at her, and gave a smile, but suddenly a pillar of darkness erupted underneath Zashi, sending him flying through the darkness, he quickly looked around, but his vision was hindered by the darkness, and suddenly he heard a chilling laughter.

Pain raced through Zashi's body, Melantha had merged with the beam, and was attacking him. Hearing him scream, Marlena looked at the pillar of darkness, but could not see what was happening inside, "ZASHI!" she tried to shout over his screaming, but it was no use. A side of the pillar broke, with Zashi flying backwards, and tumbling like a rag-doll, rolling 11 feet away from the pillar, Marlena witnessed what happened and ran towards him. She dropped to his side and lifted his head, "Zashi! Come on Zashi! You've got to wake up!" she shouted, trying to wake him up, and his breaths were short, Marlena stood up and looked at the pillar of darkness, which faded to reveal Melantha, "It wouldn't be so painful if you just surrendered." She said with a smirk on her face, however Marlena had lowered her head, "Zashi…I need to borrow your keyblade for a moment…" she whispered to herself, and held out her left hand, and she concentrated on Zashi's keyblade and a beam of light shone in her hand, revealing the keyblade.

Fear replaced the smirk on Melantha's face when Marlena lifted her head, "Don't you dare hurt my friend!" She shouted, and flew towards Melantha. Attacking her with all her strength, Marlena gave a war-cry as she attacked, hitting her with repeated blows with the keyblades, and two balls of light formed at the tips of the weapons, Marlena aimed at Melantha and she let them loose, creating a massive explosion of light. Slowly floating back to the ground, Zashi's keyblade suddenly disappeared from Marlena's hands and she turned back to see him slowly get up from the ground. She ran towards him, and slid to her hands and knees, and grabbed him, "Zashi! I thought that Melantha had gotten you for good!" With her assistance, Zashi stood on his feet, and he turned to meet her gaze, "nope, it will take a lot more to take care of me…" with that, he suddenly fell to his knees, and he wrapped his arm around Marlena's neck for support.

They started walking away from the battle, only to face an army of Heartless, however Marlena simply shook her head, "I've had enough of you guys…" strangely, all of them disappeared, and Zashi looked at her, "wow…you've got a way with words…" She smiled, but suddenly Zashi's eyes went wide, and he pushed Marlena away from him. "ZASHI!" Marlena screamed, falling away from him, with her left hand reaching out to him, but a beam of darkness suddenly engulfed him. "I wont let this end with a happy ending!" Melantha's voice echoed, her eyes burning with rage. Marlena quickly got to her feet and ran towards Melantha, with her keyblade ready, but when she got there, she felt a cold, metal bar hit her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, and she fell to her knees.

Slowly turning around in the beam, Zashi looked to see Marlena lying on the ground when a voice suddenly came to him, "there is light within every heart, just as darkness…" he stretched out his right hand, and a small sphere of light formed in his hand, and the light grew into a beam, which formed into a keyblade. With great effort, Zashi pointed the keyblade in front of him, "MELANTAHA! THIS IS YOUR END!" with that, a single beam of light gradually made its way through the darkness, Melantha screamed, pouring more power into the beam, trying desperately to stop the solitary beam of light, which wavered from the extra energy in the beam, but it slowly crept towards her.

Finally reaching Melantha, once the beam touched her skin, the light raced all over her skin and clothes, she screamed louder from the light, which radiated out from inside her, and a massive explosion of light and darkness swept over the entire world…


	32. Memories Fade

Memories Fade

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Slowly opening his eyes, Zashi turned his head to the right, then the left, but all there was to see was darkness. "Hello?" his voice echoed endlessly, and he took a step forward, but he stopped, "What's going on here?" Zashi felt as though he had dropped something important, and looked around for the object, but there was nothing, when he heard a voice behind him, "Hey," he quickly turned around to see Melanie, and a smile flashed across his face, "Melanie! Its good to see you!" looking around for a moment, he turned his attention back to her, "do you know where we are?" She smiled and gave a nod, "This is the realm of Darkness…"

"the realm of Darkness?" Zashi repeated her words, and she nodded her head, "what you dropped was part of your memory…" He became confused, "my memory?" Melanie nodded and walked past him, "in this place, hearts become empty because of the darkness…" Zashi quickly turned around, "Wait! Sora was here right? After he was turned…" he let his voice trail, and his head hung low. Lifting his head, he looked into Melanie's eyes for an answer, but none came, and suddenly a thought entered his head, "Wait! Does this mean that Melantha is defeated?" She gave a nod, but Zashi did not celebrate the moment, "what's going to happen to me now? To Marlena?"

Melanie slowly turned around, "well…regardless, you are loosing your memory, and I'm not sure what will happen to Marlena once she sees you in your state." Zashi's head hung low again, "I wanted to go home with Marlena… But now…" he let his voice trail again, and a single tear fell from his face, "now I can't get home…" Zashi slumped to the ground, and slammed his fist against the invisible surface, but his fist was caught by Melanie's hand, "movement causes you to forget faster." He looked across the darkness, _"the place were those people helped us…what was its name?"_ Zashi looked into Melanie's eyes, tears streaming down his face, "Sora…Was the lucky one…" she simply nodded and slumped down next to him, and wrapped her arm around him, and let him cry.

_"My memory…its fading away…all the wonderful memories of my friends…of Marlena are fading away…"_ Zashi thought to himself as he cried, and lifted his hand to dry his tears, "well…maybe being in Darkness isn't too bad…I will forget about all the hard times…" trying to sound optimistic, he sighed at his own attempt, "but then I will forget about all the good things that have happened to me too, like meeting you Melanie." He looked into her eyes, and smiled, but she turned away, and looked into the darkness, "but my heart contained Melantha, who destroyed lots of worlds and attacked lots of people…how could that be a good thing?" he shook his head, "no what matters is that I met you and made a memory from it…" Melanie looked over the darkness, "Everything in your heart might be forgotten here…Even Marlena…" to this, Zashi stood straight up, "NO! I will never forget about Marlena! She is the one who saved me from…" he let his voice trail, _"who did she save me from?"_ he questioned, and looked to Melanie, but she simply stood up and started walking away.

"Every memory the heart holds, gets erased in the darkness…" Melanie's voice echoed throughout the darkness, and Zashi stretched his right hand, and took a step after her, but he felt the same sensation of dropping something important, _"Maybe she is right…The memories of the heart are erased in darkness…"_ however, he quickly shook his head, "NO! My memories are precious to me and I can't loose them here!" his voice again echoed throughout the darkness. Watching Melanie fade into the distance, he made up his mind, and started running after her, with every step, he lost fragments of his recent memory of defeating Melantha, traveling to her world, and soon he began to forget the place he called home. _"Marlena…I must escape from this place before I loose you too…"_ Zashi thought to himself, while running through the darkness, trying desperately to find something-anything that resembles light. However he finally stopped, and slumped to the floor, "Marlena…I can't forget about you…" he said aloud, but her image in his mind slowly became faded and distorted. "Marlena…help me…" he said as the image of Marlena began to be replaced by darkness…

"I told you that you'd forget…" a female voice came to him, and he looked up into her yellow eyes, "do I know you?" Zashi questioned the girl, but she wrapped her arm around him and pulled him to his feet, "it would be a miracle if you did…" Melanie responded, and they started walking, Zashi looked around the darkness, "I can't remember anything…Why I am here…or even my own name…" his voice trailed, she turned to him, "do you remember a girl named Marlena?" Zashi looked at her, _"wait…why does that name sound so familiar? Was she someone I knew?"_ he thought to himself, "don't worry, I wont let you wander in Darkness…besides there might be a way to send you back…" Zashi gave her a strange look, "back? Back where?" Melanie looked at him and rolled her eyes, _"I forgot, he can't remember anything…"_ she looked at him, "back to the place where you belong…" Zashi looked into the darkness, "back…to where I belong?" he asked, but she simply looked straight ahead and they kept on walking through the darkness…


	33. Renewed Hope

Renewed Hope

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

By:

Chison

Holding her head, Marlena slowly opened her eyes, and looked around for signs of Melantha, but the world was still twisted and she suddenly remembered Zashi saving her, and jumped to her feet, and used her hands to echo her voice, "ZASHI! WHERE ARE YOU?" her voice seemed to travel endlessly, and she frantically looked around for any sign he was still alive. She started walking, looking intently at the ground, but after a few minutes of walking, something caught her eye: it was a keyblade. Running over to the weapon, she slumped to her knees and held the weapon in her hand, "Zashi…where are you?" she whispered to herself, while a teardrop fell from her cheek onto the keyblade. Suddenly the weapon started to fade away in her hands, "NO!" Marlena screamed as the keyblade became weightless, and it started to fall apart, with bits of light flying away from the weapon like fireflies until it had totally vanished.

"What…What am I supposed to do now?" Marlena asked herself out loud, and got to her feet and summoned her keyblade, and started surveying the ruins for something that resembled a door, but her eyes caught a black mass move. She froze, her eyes fixated on that one point, _"What was that?"_ she thought to herself as she moved slowly towards where she saw the blur. Moving some of the rubble out of the way, she expected a furry creature of some kind, but there was nothing, she turned her head right, then left looking for the black blur she saw, but she shrugged it off, _"it must have been my imagination…"_ she thought to herself.

However, there was another crash just behind her and she quickly turned around, and saw a small shadow scamper across the ground. "Its only a Shadow…" Marlena sighed and readied her keyblade, but when it molded into its shape, it seemed afraid of her. The creature backed away slowly, and turned left and ran away from her, "What is this thing doing?" she asked herself out loud and decided to follow the Shadow. After a few moments of walking, Marlena caught up with the heartless, however he had gotten himself stuck in a crater, and was scratching the ground looking for something. _"Maybe Zashi is under the ground!"_ she thought to herself and climbed down into the crater and watched the creature dig, and suddenly a piece of clothing belonging to Zashi came into view.

The Shadow pulled the garments from the ground and put it over its head, _"This…is Zashi's…" _Marlena thought to herself, and looked at the Shadow, _"Could this Heartless…No…"_ she shook her head at the thought, and watched as the Heartless attempted to put it on like a shirt, but it was no use. Marlena moved closer to the Shadow and looked into its yellow eyes, and she suddenly felt tears run down her face, she extended her right hand to the creature, at first the Shadow was scarred, but it slowly took her hand. When they touched, an image of Zashi flashed across Marlena's mind, and she wrapped both of her arms around the Heartless, "Zashi… How can we go home with you like this?" she sobbed, but the Shadow did not respond, and she let go of him.

Suddenly a flash of light appeared behind the Shadow, making it jump behind Marlena, when it faded, it revealed Namine. "Namine…" Marlena started, but in response she lifted her left hand, "I know its difficult, but there might be a chance to save him…" Determination shone across Marlena's face, "Anything to bring Zashi back." Namine smiled and looked into the sky, "Zashi wanders in Darkness, and the Heartless you are carrying is one of the physical manifestations of loosing your heart…" Marlena tilted her head to the left, "one?" she questioned, and Namine nodded her head, "if a person with a strong will become a Heartless, then a Nobody is created as well."

This caught Marlena's attention, "the Nobody are just shells of people…and this Shadow has the heart…" Her face lit up as she connected the dots in her head, "This means that all we have to do is find Zashi's Nobody and combine the Heartless with it!" Namine nodded her head, but sighed and turned away from Marlena, "however you cannot find the Nobody…your ties to the Non-Existent realm are not strong enough…" Marlena lowered her head in sadness, but suddenly she remembered, "IRIS! She has ties to the Non-Existent realm!" Namine looked back to her and nodded her head, "right, now the last thread of Fate will be strung, sealing Kingdom Hearts…"

* * *

I couldnt log into to for a while, but this is the final chapter for Friends in my Heart! Now I am currently in the rough draft of the third and final story to end this massive thing I have started! Hoped you liked this story! 


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